Discover Audrey McCall Beach

Tuesdays in July and August 5:30-8:30pm.

Join PopCart PDX and DJ Carlos for tunes on the beach and food carts.

Discover Audrey McCall Beach! This is a great spot right off the Esplanade between the Hawthorne Bridge and OMSI that is close in with great downtown and sunset views - easy to walk or bike to. There is also ample free street parking on SE Madison, SE Water and SE Main and lots. Bring a chair or beach blanket, river shoes always recommended in any river and maybe a river float. Many thanks to Central Eastside Industrial Council and Pacific Power for providing funding to make this happen!

HISTORY AND IMPACT

Human Access Project has worked on Audrey McCall Beach since 2011. We had to get permission from 8 separate agencies to remove concrete chunks. Our approval called for not using heavy mechanized equipment. Armed with an ATV with a bed in the back, volunteers and an Inverness Inmate work crew we removed over 200 tons of concrete from the beach over 4 years. That made the beach much beachier, suddenly then there was calls for not having any public access to this area we did so much work to improve. So we privately funded a lifeguard program to establish the use as a swimming beach.

Then the pandemic happened. We shifted our attention to converting the Duckworth Dock to a swimming dock and Cathedral Park removing 150 tons of concrete and replacing the dock. It's finally Audrey McCall Beach's time to shine.

June 2025 we got word we received a $250,000 Capital Grant from Metro to improve this space. A few examples of the impact we are looking to have include - removing the temporary fencing that has been under the bridge for over a decade and improving this valuable space for activation with bike racks and art. Adding a safety railing to the steep bank of the esplande trail, removing all blackberry on the bank and replacing with native wildflowers and other plantings.

HAP's organizational objectives are Build it, Use it, Love it, Sustain it. Audrey McCall Beach is now ready for summer use - come support our work by joining in our weekly Tuesday events to help us get this great beach on the public's radar and Use it. Bring a friend and help others Love it. Positive use of this space and the public seeing value in this space will help Sustain it. We are very excited to roll Audrey McCall Beach out to the public, Portland's new spot to get in the river! Above are photos from 2011 when we started our work and how it is looking today - it will only get better from here!