Michael's Landing (Corvallis)

Located just north of downtown Corvallis, this is a popular access to the Willamette River. It is neither paved nor polished, but for any boat that can be carried it is an adequate put-in or take-out. It can get busy on a summer weekend, but everybody seems to get in and out. The property belongs to the City of Corvallis and it is only open during daylight hours. There is no launch ramp and the area in the middle of the picture below that looks a bit like a ramp is not.

GPS Location: 44.569662, -123.255922

The boat launch is at the north end of the park-like area between The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant and the water. The only entry is marked 'E' on the map and is the intersection of NW Tyler Ave. and 1st St. Follow the dirt road to the launch area. You may drive all the way, or a car can be parked at the top of the tiny hill that leads down to the river. There used to be an access from 2nd St., marked 'X', but that is permanently closed.

None. Hand launch boats into a quiet area of the river. During the summer there is a rocky beach area upstream from the launch area.

From the launch area up stream to the Marys River, the water is moving but quite paddle-able. Above that point it gets faster and limits some boats. Many boats can navigate into the Marys and travel up a ways before the water gets shallow (summer). Downstream travel is slow water for quite a ways. A good starting spot to learn about this river is the Willamette Riverkeeper. There are a series of guide books available from the Riverkeeper. The area around Michael's Landing is used by the OSU Crew, and their boats can be used to see how slowly we really travel.