The Portland Landmarks Behind Laika's Wildwood

Laika's stop-motion film Wildwood, in theaters October 23, 2026, is set in a fantastical version of Portland's Forest Park. The 5,200-acre park stands in for the story's Impassable Wilderness, Pittock Mansion appears under its real name as the seat of government for South Wood, and the Bird Alliance of Oregon sits at the approximate location of the Avian Principality. All three are real places you can visit right now.

Laika is the studio just outside Portland behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls, and Wildwood is their first feature since 2019. The story comes from a book by Colin Meloy, frontman of The Decemberists, illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis. The two of them dreamed up the whole world on their walks through Forest Park. Before the movie sends a wave of new curiosity toward these spots this fall, here's what's actually behind them.

Which real Portland places show up in Wildwood?

Meloy and Ellis mapped their fictional world directly onto Forest Park and its landmarks. Forest Park becomes the Impassable Wilderness, Pittock Mansion becomes the seat of government for South Wood, the Oregon Zoo stands in as the South Wood Prison, and the Bird Alliance of Oregon marks the Avian Principality.

What I love about this is that they barely changed the names. Pittock Mansion shows up as Pittock Mansion. Forest Park is recognizable on every page. Meloy has said he always thought of the park as its own country, a place kids were told to stay out of, which is exactly the kind of idea that turns into a 500-page adventure. If you've hiked these trails, you'll spot the real geography in the film, and if you're new to Portland, the movie is a surprisingly good map of where to start.

What makes Forest Park and the Wildwood Trail worth the trip?

Forest Park covers more than 5,200 acres inside Portland city limits and holds over 80 miles of trails. The 30-mile Wildwood Trail is its backbone, running the length of the park from Washington Park at its southern end.

This is one of the largest urban forests in the country, and it sits right against the city. The Wildwood Trail is a designated National Recreation Trail that runs about 30 miles, marked every quarter mile with blue diamonds from its start at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington Park. You don't have to hike the whole thing. Most people do sections, and a favorite of mine is taking the Lower and Upper Macleay trails up to Pittock Mansion. These forested hills were first flagged for preservation in a 1903 parks plan by the Olmsted Brothers, the landscape firm run by the sons of Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Portland Parks and Recreation keeps the trails in good shape, but conditions change, so check their trail closures page before you go.

Can you actually go inside Pittock Mansion and the Bird Alliance sanctuary?

Yes. Pittock Mansion is open for guided and self-guided tours as a historic house museum, and the Bird Alliance of Oregon's 172-acre sanctuary is free and open to the public. Both connect to Forest Park's trail system.

Pittock Mansion was built in 1914 by Henry Pittock, the publisher of the Oregonian, and it's a 16,000-square-foot French Renaissance chateau with 23 rooms. Its survival is a genuinely good story. The last family members moved out in 1958, the house sat empty for about four years, and then the 1962 Columbus Day Storm tore into it. By 1964 developers wanted to level it for a subdivision, and Portlanders refused to let that happen. Residents raised money to help the city buy the property for $225,000, and it opened as a museum in 1965. You can hike up to it, take transit, or park on site.

The Bird Alliance of Oregon, formerly the Audubon Society of Portland, runs a 172-acre sanctuary with more than four miles of trails, a wildlife care center, an interpretive center, and a nature store. The rescue animals here range from birds being rehabbed for release to permanent residents that can't return to the wild. It's a good place to rest partway through a hike or to make the whole destination for the day. A few of the sanctuary's own trails have had storm closures recently, so it's worth checking their site too.

With the movie arriving this fall, these places are going to get busier. If you've been curious about Portland, going now means seeing them before the crowds catch up.

Thinking about a move to the northwest side of Portland?

The neighborhoods around Forest Park are some of my favorites to show buyers, and living near this much green space is a real part of the appeal. Reach me on my contact page and I'll walk you through what's out there.