In part two of our Guide to Portland + Beyond I’m doing something I have very consciously, never done before. I’m choosing to share some of the most special places I’ve had the opportunity to connect with in the wild. I’ve resisted doing this for a long time out of a sense of needing desperately, to protect them. Because so often in our culture, we love these wild places to death, and forget that they are medicine, and they have spirits which must be honored and fed if they are going to continue to thrive.
My choice not to share these places has come from a fear that they will not be respected or met in a good way. But we need them, and they need us. It still feels vulnerable, but also necessary, to share them with you, and I feel safe doing so within the container of the Garden Party community. Thank you for that.
Some of these places are well known by many, while others are known by few. Either way, I trust that when you go to these places, that you will feed them through your presence, hold them as sacred, take little and offer much, and ultimately, create reciprocity and relationship with them. These are places that are asking to be seen, to be loved, to be known and to be nurtured. I am listening to what they are saying, and I know that you will too. May your presence be as Medicine for the land and may these places hold you and offer you the same.
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Below you’ll find a long list of my favorite wild places within a few short hours of Portland OR. I’ve included an interactive map to guide you to them, as well as meaningful suggestions for how to give back to and nourish this Land and all who make their home here. While the list below is far from exhaustive, these are the places that touched my heart and stuck in my mind. If there are places you think should be on it, I’d love to know about them as well!
