Mosby Creek flowing through Blue Mountain Park
Tucked off a meandering, rural road eight miles southeast of Cottage Grove is a quiet, wooded, county park, which perhaps many people haven’t been to: Blue Mountain Park.
Blue Mountain Park has been in the news a lot lately. It is a small, undeveloped park just outside Cottage Grove and the county wanted to log there. The news caught my eye for many reasons, most especially because I had never heard of the park. Of course, that meant we had to go out there and explore.
It was a sunny winter day when we loaded up our dogs and went in search of the park. We found it, appropriately enough, across Blue Mountain School Road from Blue Mountain School. Like a lot of little parks, there isn’t a lot to see from the parking lot. But once you get out and start exploring the special qualities of Blue Mountain Park start shining through.
Blue Mountain Park is unique because it lies along Mosby Creek. Mosby Creek is a free flowing, un-dammed waterway and since the fall of 2011 the Coast Fork Watershed Council has been working with various partners and residents along the creek to improve the habitat for spring Chinook. They also document an exciting array of fish species in the creek including trout and lamprey eels.
What I loved about Blue Mountain Park was the solitude and the moss. We had the short trail through the park all to ourselves. And we spent much our time enjoying the moss which dripped from the trees and is slowly reclaiming the wooden picnic tables. At 300 acres in size it isn’t a huge park, but I suspect our little afternoon jaunt has just provided a glimpse of what this park has to offer. We’ll be out later to explore other regions.
Have you been to Blue Mountain Park? What are your favorite parts?
How to get there: Head east on Main Street in Cottage Grove. The road will eventually become Mosby Creek Road. Enjoy the pastoral views for about five miles then turn right onto the twisting Blue Mountain School Road. The park is across from Blue Mountain School at mile post 2. There are no amenities in the park. Please pack out what you bring in.
My South Lane 
Another unique find Colette! You certainly are digging them up. I had never even heard of this one.
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Thanks Jim. It is a neat little park and I’m looking forward to seeing it change over the seasons.
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It’s nice to find those tucked away places. Looks beautiful.
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I’m amazed it is so close to town and I hadn’t heard of it until the news reports.
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The local schools often used to take field trips out there. I remember going in the early 90’s with my kids.
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This would be a great place to take a field trip. I wonder if they still do that.
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Is the Blue Mountain School still there? It was a two-room school. There was also a swinging walk bridge across Mosby Creek that allowed kids to reach the school from the other side.
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Hi Mel. There is still a school there — now called the Blue Mountain Charter School. But I believe the 2-room school house was torn down (the book “Golden Was the Past the stories continue….” suggests it was dismantled in 1970).
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BTW, the park isn’t hidden; Google Maps shows the park and a Blue Mountain Charter School. Also, it shows a section of the park across Mosby Creek with Mosby Creek Rd going through it.
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Yep, Google maps is how we got directions to the park. But oddly, even though I’ve spent my share of time looking at Google Maps this park had escaped my eye.
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I didn’t know about the park either until I was looking around on Google Maps re your post about Mosby Creek covered bridges.
Really, Google Maps is one of the best things about the Internet. Several years ago, I went all the way around NYC’s Central Park in street level view. A week or so ago, I was looking at the CG area as the hub of some rivers coming together. As a kid, I didn’t realize that we neighborhood kids swam in Mosby Creek very near where it flowed into Row River. Somehow, Mosby Creek, at that spot, was warm enough to swim in. (We might have been trespassing, but what do kids know or care.) Another fun time with Google Maps is to look around the Pacific islands, especially French Polynesia with its fabulous Bora Bora.
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Hi Mel — I’ve heard of that famous swimming spot on Mosby Creek. We tried to find it but came across a lot of “Private property” signs.
I, too, have spent my time visiting other countries via Google, I’ll check out Bora Bora that’s a great idea!
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It definitely looks like a great spot to hang out in the summer! I’m glad the county backed off logging it. It doesn’t really make sense to cut trees that are getting ‘too large for local sawmills’ in order to fund other more urban parks like Armitage.
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HI John,
My understanding was that they wanted to log before the trees got too large for the local sawmills… which I appreciated since I’d like those jobs to stay local. However, using the revenue to fund showers, laundry and a restroom at Armatige Park campground seems wrong, I think campground fees should pay for that. I also would hate to see logging along Mosby Creek after so much work has been put into improving the Mosby Creek habitat. Luckily, they’ve backed off the idea.
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