Playas fluviales y baño canino en los alrededores de Portland

The largest off-leash area anywhere near Portland, a former floodplain at the confluence of the Sandy and Columbia rivers with meadows, cottonwood groves, a network of dirt tracks and long stretches of gravel and sand river bank. Dogs swim in the Sandy, which is shallow and slow at the edges through the summer. Locals call it Thousand Acres, and on a warm weekend it is essentially a dog festival.

An 8-acre park on the east bank of the Willamette in Sellwood, with a 1.5-acre off-leash area on its west side running right down to the water. The bank shelves gently into the river, which makes it the easiest place in the city itself for a dog to swim and fetch, and the Springwater Corridor trail passes the top of the park.

A 22-acre park directly beneath the Gothic arches of the St Johns Bridge, on the west-facing bank of the Willamette in north Portland. The off-leash area is an unfenced half acre of grass under the bridge piers, and the park has a boat ramp and paved riverside paths. It is the most photogenic dog walk in the city and the quietest of the three on a weekday.