Hidden Among the Trees of the Hayhurst Neighborhood, the 102-year-old Alpenrose Dairy Is Portland’s Original Family Fun Center

The sprawling 55-acre compound has everything from a harness store and music shop to a 600-seat opera house that occasionally puts on shows.

(Katie Reahl)

The Tillamook Cheese Factory isn't Oregon's only dairy-themed tourist attraction.

Hidden among the hills and trees of the Hayhurst neighborhood, the 102-year-old Alpenrose Dairy (6149 SW Shattuck Road, 503-244-1133, alpenrose.com) is Portland's original family fun center. It may no longer host chariot racing or trapeze acts, but there's still plenty to do.

(Katie Reahl)

On a given afternoon, visitors can watch cyclists skirt around the steepest velodrome in the country, built in 1967 for the Pan American Games. You can also take in a softball game at the official field of the Little League World Series. Or you can mill about Dairyville, replica frontier town that's both charming and a little eerie.

The sprawling 55-acre compound has everything from a harness store and music shop to a 600-seat opera house that occasionally puts on shows. It's also home to the Skinner pipe organ, formerly housed at the Portland Civic Auditorium. Tillamook may have the brand-new upgrade and the coast for a backyard, but Alpenrose is an Old Portland rabbit hole very much worth falling into some summer afternoon.

(Katie Reahl)
(Katie Reahl)
(Katie Reahl)

Click here for the full Best of Portland 2018 guide.

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