Annual Thanksgiving Walk w/ Scones and Coffee
- Hillsdale News
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
[Update: November 19, 2025; Posted November 15, 2025]
Update: Need more post- walk coffee? PDX Coffee Club will be open 7am-2pm on Thanksgiving and is offering a 20% discount to customers who have completed the walk.
A Hillsdale tradition for almost 30 years, the Thanksgiving Day Scone Walk celebrates community and friends—and helps work up an appetite for the festivities to come later in the day. At the midpoint of the walk, take a break to visit, relax and enjoy scones, coffee, and tea courtesy of SW Trails PDX and Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. Refreshments available from 9:30am until 11am (or while supplies last) on the SW Vincent Place cul-de-sac.
This year’s walk will be self-led, starting and ending at the Hillsdale Food Carts on SW Capitol Highway at the entrance to Ida B. Wells High School.
The Route
The trail’s beginning is marked at the Hillsdale Food Carts, but you can jump in at any point along the way as it is a loop and you will end back where you began.
This stroll will begin heading across Capitol Highway along Sunset Boulevard to the Hillsdale Library at the corner of Dewitt, where you will turn right. At the end of Dewitt, turn left on Cheltenham Street, following the street as it twists and bends, arriving at Terwilliger. Cross Terwilliger to the walking path, turn right/south toward Capitol Highway.
When you get to the intersection with Capitol Hwy, cross both streets so you can take the narrow path along the west side of Terwilliger to the first intersection, Vincent Place. Follow west to the end of the cul-de-sac where you will find scones, coffee, and tea. Enjoy, and continue your walk by returning to the traffic signal and crosswalk at Capitol Highway, crossing Terwilliger and proceeding south along the paved path.
Continue south on Terwilliger for approximately 600 feet, coming to an open area where you can select from two alternatives. You can choose the path into the woods running parallel to Terwilliger, where you can enjoy the glory of George Himes Park; it will come out at Nebraska near the picnic tables. Alternatively, you can remain on the paved path and proceed to Chestnut Street and cross with care, following Chestnut to Burlingame Avenue. Heading right/north take Burlingame Avenue until you reach the access to the Wells parking lot, and then back to the where you began.
An ad-hoc group of residents known as the Hillsdale Vision Group initiated the walk in the mid-1990’s with a walk from the same starting point to the Willamette River and back. That group motivated Portland to initiate the Hillsdale Town Center Plan, which led to the creation of the Hillsdale Neighborhood from the existing Bridlemile-Robert Gray and Wilson Park neighborhoods.
For the first Thanksgiving walk, Hillsdale trails activists Karen and Glenn Bridger served scones and coffee on the riverfront, in later years setting up refreshments in front of their home on SW Vincent Pl. Glenn died in 2023, but the tradition continues.
What's your Hillsdale Thanksgiving Day tradition? Let us know.
