Posts in category 'Why We Love Central Oregon'

There are so many reasons to love Central Oregon and it would take multiple lifetimes to experience them all. From the beautiful mountains to explore, the winding rivers to traverse, the desert flats to experience, and the beer to taste, there is a little something for everyone.

This year, we have been taking on as many mountain biking trails as we can. With the mild fall season, we have even been able to push our biking into November! One of our favorite "go to" trails to bike is Ben's, part of the Phil's Trail Mountain Biking system. With roughly 12 miles of trail and a tad over 800 feet of elevation gain, this trail has a little bit of everything. 

We love that this trail has a nice winding area to warm up before hitting the uphill. Upon completing the...

Click Here to Read More...

Probably one of the most popular hikes in Central Oregon is the trail from Century Drive via Fall Creek up to Green Lakes in the Three Sisters Wilderness.  This nine mile round trip gains 1500 feet elevation, crossing the creek three times, but is relatively easy to moderate for most hikers.  Hundreds of people will take this hike on sunny summer days and the enjoyment of the beauty of Green Lakes is one of the "must dos" for many Central Oregon visitors.  During our years in Central Oregon, we have taken this hike often and have enjoyed the experience every time, despite the increased traffic on the trail.

Last Saturday we decided to hike the alternative trail to Green Lakes.  This trail starts at the same parking lot as the Fall Creek trail, but instead travels via Soda Springs up the south side of Broken Top.  We had never hiked this trail before and really enjoyed the unexpected views and relatively few people we saw in the early part of the hike.  We started the hike at 7:40 am and for the first few miles, we believe we were the first and only people on the trail that morning. The trail joins with one coming from Todd Lake which eventually splits from the Green Lakes trail to the trail to hike Broken Top to No Name Lake. We saw a number of people taking this trek and debated whether or not Broken Top should be our destination, but decided to stay with our original plan and traveled to Green Lakes. In this stretch of the trail we saw a number of people hiking from Green Lakes, either with Broken Top as their destination or the Soda Springs trailhead we had started from. 

Once we reached Green Lakes, we enjoyed the views for a while before returning to our car via the traditional Fall Creek trail. We passed hundreds of people coming up this trail as we hiked down. Next year Green Lakes will be accessible by permit only which should limit the numbers visiting this beautiful location. Hiking to Green Lakes via Soda Springs increased our trek by roughly three very enjoyable miles and we look forward to taking this hike again - but this next time to Broken Top.

Smith Rock is One of Oregon's Most Popular State Parks

If you are planning on seeing one of Oregon's most popular state parks, be sure to get there early.  Smith Rock, located north of Redmond and just east of Terrebonne, is an extremely popular destination for most visitors to Central Oregon as well as those locals just looking to recreate, hike, or rock climb.  The iconic rock formation is credited as being the birthplace of modern American sport climbing and is popular with traditional, multi-pitched and bouldering as well with over 1800 rock climbing routes within the park. Most visitors who are not climbers, will hike on many of the trails scattered around the park, some along the Crooked River and others over the rocks - the most popular being Misery Ridge.

Last Sunday we took a longer hiking route we had never done before - the full 7.5 mile loop around the park which included the Canyon Trail to Wolf Tree to Homestead to Burma Road to Summit Trail to River Trail. The total elevation gain was 1200 feet and we did the hike counter clockwise in order to climb the steep, but not difficult Burma Road which brings you to the high point of the hike early in the day. We arrived at the park before 8 am and already there were many cars parked in the limited parking lot. We paid our $5 park fee and enjoyed the morning hiking. The views after the rain the night before were wonderful and the clean air after the wildfire haze most welcome. The Cascades were hidden behind clouds, but every now and then we could catch a view of one of the peaks scattered with fresh snow. 

South Sister is a Challenge!

Probably one of the most hiked mountains in the Cascades, South Sister, while not a technical hike, is a challenge. In roughly 5.5 miles, hikers climb 5000 feet to the summit of Oregon's third highest peak at 10,358 feet. In the 35 years we have lived in Bend, we had never hiked South Sister until Saturday, October 3, 2020, thinking that the normal summer crowds would be gone by then. We were surprised to find out that was not the case.

We started our hike at Devil's Lake off Cascade Lakes Highway at 6:45 am. The first mile and a half was in wooded old growth forest, but the trail climbed steeply through the hemlocks and opened up once we reached the plains overlooking Moraine Lake. There the view of South Sister became prominent. Even that early in the morning we met people coming down from the mountain, having enjoyed watching the sunrise from the peak.

Past Moraine Lake, the rocky trail started to climb steeply. We had to carefully watch where we stepped and made sure our footing was secure. There was several places where the trail wasn't clearly defined and we had to pick and choose our way up the mountain. Climbing up over a moraine, we reached the final stop before the last push up the saddle to the summit at Lewis Glacier and its lake. The trek to the top is very slow and steep with loose rock and cinders - and on the trip down many, many people to step around. Once we passed 10,000 feet, we got above the inversion that moved into Central Oregon with high pressure and trapped smoke from the wildfires still burning in the area. This impacted our views from the top - which we have been told are fabulous for hundreds of miles - but did create interested images to see the effect of smoke and bad air quality.  

According to forest service personnel, starting next year, the hike up South Sister will be by permit only to limit the number of people on the mountain at one time. Based on our experience, that will be a positive move. The hike is challenging enough, but it can be dangerous having to step around people on parts of the trail where loose stones and cinders along with steep slopes can create hazardous situations. We returned to our car at 5 pm, having taken all day to hike up and back the 5000 feet with sore muscles but satisfaction at finally having reached the summit.

Popular Tumalo Falls is Among Most Tourists' Must See Destinations

Tumalo Falls has always been a destination for people visiting Central Oregon. The short drive out of Bend followed by a short walk can give tourists the opportunity to see a beautiful local waterfall and the location of roughly 1/2 of Bend's water supply. Most people stop at either the base of the falls, or will climb the 1/4 mile up to the overlook at the top of the falls. But there is a fabulous trail upstream along Tumalo Creek that takes hikers past several beautiful waterfalls and eventually leads to Happy Valley meadow in which a merger of several trails and roads provide for miles of opportunities to recreate using the Tumalo Trail System.

It has been seven years since we last hiked to Tumalo Falls.  That last time the road to the falls was closed due to the piping project for the the city of Bend in the Bridge Creek watershed. At that time we parked at Skyliner's Trailhead and hiked around to Tumalo Falls and then hiked up Bridge Creek, eventually joining with the main North Fork Trail just south of Happy Valley returning down the main trail and eventually back to our car.  During that trip we saw almost no one.

It was very different September 26, 2020. Parking along the road was crowded and rather than hike the normal way up the North Fork Trail, we decided to take the loop around using the Farewell Trail which starts on the east side of the Falls and switchbacks up the hill bordering Tumalo Falls on the east, eventually joining with Mrazek Trail, then to Metolius-Windego Trail and then in Happy Valley, connecting with the North Fork Trail; the whole hike was slightly more than 10 miles and gave us a much different perspective of the area.

Unlike our last experience seven years ago, however, we were very surprised at how busy the trail was - not with hikers, but with mountain bikers. During our 10 mile loop, we stepped aside multiple times as mountain bikers passed by. We estimate we saw over 100 bikers that day and obviously during the summer season, there must be many, many more that will ride over these trails. The Tumalo Trail System borders the Three Sisters Wilderness where bicycles are not allowed and the system is extremely extensive and must be well enjoyed by the mountain bike community in Central Oregon.