Willow Bar Beach (Sauvie Island)

🏊Swimming at Willow Bar Beach (Sauvie Island)

Swimming and wading are allowed at your own risk; there are no lifeguards. The water off the sand is shallow and gradual at first (waist-deep wading is common), but the Columbia shoreline here can drop off suddenly, and the Multnomah County River Patrol has warned that you can be knee-deep 100 feet from shore and then abruptly over your head. Most people wade, float and swim close to shore. Columbia Riverkeeper samples this beach for E. coli every two weeks from May through September, and it has passed at least 95% of the time. Water is cold in May and June and warmest from late July through August; no site-specific temperature gauge was found.

📍How to get to this swimming hole

From downtown Portland take US-30 west about 10 miles and cross the Sauvie Island Bridge. Follow NW Sauvie Island Road about 2 miles and bear right onto NW Reeder Road. Continue roughly 7 miles on Reeder Road (past the Reeder Beach RV Park and Country Store) to milepost 7 at the Multnomah/Columbia county line, then turn right onto the marked gravel road and drive about 0.3 mile to the Willow Bar parking area beside the beach. Walton Beach (milepost 9.8) and Collins Beach (milepost 11) are farther north on the same road.

Parking: Small gravel lot at the end of the Willow Bar access road, about 50 vehicles by ODFW's 2025 parking study. It fills on hot weekends (ODFW counted a peak of 75 cars on July 4, 2024, with the overflow lining the gravel access road). Parking along roads outside designated areas is prohibited and violators may be towed.

🥾The walk in

No real hike here. The water is a short walk from where you park. No hike needed; the parking area sits right behind the sand. If you want more room, the informal Willow Bar Islands trail runs about 3 miles out and back along the river, partly on the beach and partly through the cottonwoods, so you can walk away from the lot to a quieter stretch.

💬What regulars say

Willow Bar is the low-key option among the Sauvie Island beaches: smaller lot, fewer people, and on summer weekends it's the one beach where your regular $10 Wildlife Area permit still works, which matters since the new weekend beach permits for Walton, Collins and North Unit often sell out. The trade-off is the small lot, so arrive early on hot days; ODFW's counts show it overflowing by early afternoon on holidays. Bring everything you need (water, shade, trash bags); there's only a porta-potty and no alcohol is allowed May through September. The sand runs for about two miles, so a short walk from the lot usually buys you space.

📜Backstory

Sauvie Island was home to Multnomah (Chinookan) villages long before Lewis and Clark passed through in 1805, and it takes its name from Laurent Sauvé, whom the Hudson's Bay Company sent to run a dairy on the island after disease epidemics devastated the Multnomah villages. The Sauvie Island Wildlife Area was established in 1947 to protect waterfowl habitat and provide public hunting, growing through purchases to 11,643 acres by 2012. Parking permits have been required since 1990, with the revenue funding law enforcement, portable toilets, litter patrols and parking lot upkeep for the beaches. In 2026 ODFW introduced a limited-entry Sauvie Island Beaches Parking Permit for summer weekends at Walton, Collins and North Unit beaches after years of traffic jams and double parking, but left Willow Bar on the regular Wildlife Area permit.