Walton Beach (Sauvie Island)

🏊Swimming at Walton Beach (Sauvie Island)

Wade and swim straight off the sand into the Columbia. The shoreline slopes gently in places, but the Sauvie Island Community Association warns that it 'often has sudden drop-offs' where 3 feet of water becomes 9 feet or more within a couple of steps, and Multnomah County's river patrol has warned that swimmers can wade out 100 feet knee-deep and then suddenly be in over their heads. There are no lifeguards. Life jackets are strongly recommended for children and weaker swimmers; the Sauvie Island Fire Department advises wearing one even if you're a skilled swimmer. Columbia Riverkeeper volunteers test the water for E. coli here during the summer season and publish results through the Swim Guide app; Walton has passed those tests roughly 60 to 95 percent of the time, so check recent results before swimming, especially after rain.

📍How to get to this swimming hole

From Portland take US-30 west to the Sauvie Island Bridge and cross onto the island. Head north on NW Sauvie Island Road, turn right onto NW Reeder Road, and follow it across the island and north along the Columbia. Walton Beach is at milepost 9.8, on the still-paved stretch of Reeder Road about 0.7 mile past the Rentenaar Road junction and roughly a mile south of where the pavement ends near Collins Beach. Park along the road-side lot and take one of the stairways over the dike.

Parking: Parking is along NW Reeder Road on the river side, directly behind the dike, with several stairways leading over it to the beach. A valid ODFW permit is required at all times: on summer weekends and holidays (June 19 to Sept. 7 in 2026) that means the new limited-entry Sauvie Island Beaches Parking Permit ($10/day), and the rest of the time a regular Wildlife Area Parking Permit ($10/day or $30/year). Vehicles left between 10 pm and 4 am or blocking access can be towed at the owner's expense. Walton is typically the most popular of the island's beach lots and fills first.

🥾The walk in

No real hike here. The water is a short walk from where you park. No hike. Park along Reeder Road and climb one of the short stairways over the dike; the sand is right on the other side.

💬What regulars say

Walton is the closest, easiest and most popular of Sauvie Island's beaches, so summer weekends are when it's busiest and when the new limited-entry permit matters most: buy a daily permit online ahead of time (they sell out, with more released Fridays at 4 pm), or come on a weekday when the regular $10 Wildlife Area permit works. Bring water shoes, shade, drinking water and a life jacket for kids, since there's no shade structure, no drinking water and no lifeguard. Keep an eye out for approaching ships: their wakes arrive a minute or two after they pass and can surge well up the sand, so keep toddlers and gear back from the waterline.

📜Backstory

The Sauvie Island Wildlife Area was established by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1947 (first land purchase in 1940) primarily to protect waterfowl habitat. Its Columbia River beaches exist mainly because dredged material from repeated Columbia channel dredging since the 1960s was placed along the shore; the beaches are owned by the Oregon Department of State Lands and managed by ODFW under a 1993 Beach Use Plan adjudicated by the Columbia County Circuit Court in 2001. The 1996 flood significantly reshaped the island's beaches. Beach users account for the majority of the wildlife area's visits (over 600,000 use days a year per the 2012 management plan). After years of overflowing parking, double-parking and blocked emergency access on Reeder Road, ODFW ran a free limited-entry parking-pass pilot in summer 2025, and in April 2026 the Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a paid Sauvie Island Beaches Parking Permit for Walton, Collins and North Unit beaches on summer weekends and holidays.