Bend Premier Real Estate Blog

Bend Real Estate Sales Impacted by Covid-19 Pandemic

The May 2020 real estate sales figures have been published and the second full month of the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on the Bend economy is over. Contrary to the thought process of many, Bend single family real estate sales were extremely strong in May. The biggest limitation to sales was the lack of inventory with sellers either delaying listing or pulling listings off the market. Buyers, however, have entered the market in force and are purchasing Bend single family homes, driving inventory levels below 2 months.

When May 2020 is compared with May 2019, Bend single family homes on less than an acre show the following changes:

• Average sales price down .5% to $553,373*
• Average list price down 1.99% to $596,885
• New listings down 39.2% to 256
• Number of homes for sa...

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Sparks Lake Not Yet Ready for Visitors

Sparks Lake is one of our favorite Central Oregon places to take visitors to showcase why we love where we live.  Located off the Cascade Lakes Highway, the views of Broken Top and South Sister from the Ray Atkeson Memorial Trail are spectacular and the lake is usually filled with non-motorized boats and paddle boards during the summer months.  It is one of our favorite places to go, especially since the Ray Atkeson Memorial Trail is handicap accessible which makes it a fabulous place for us to take elderly parents.

We drove up to Sparks Lake today hoping to catch some mountain views between the clouds and late snow showers. However, the views did not come out and the weather remained cool and overcast.

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In all the years we have lived in Central Oregon, we have never hiked to Alder Springs. In fact, we didn't even know it existed until recently.  Flowing into lower Whychus Creek which starts at Broken Top and merges into the Deschutes River, Alder Springs is an oasis in the midst of the High Desert. 

There are two trail heads you can drive to in order to begin your hike to Alder Springs.  Both trail heads have sketchy 4 wheel drive dirt roads which is probably why few take these hikes. We took the least rough road located out of Sisters to our trail head which resulted in a longer 3.8 mile hike one direction bordering Whychus Creek much of the way.  We saw no one on this hike until we reached Alder Springs and at times the trail was hard to find. During the summer this hike would be very warm as there is little shade and we would recommend hikers bring a lot of water. But the hike along the canyon rim can be beautiful with views down to the creek and birds of prey circling in the sky.

Once we reached Alder Springs, we saw other hikers for the first time. They had come the shorter 1.5 miles from the other trail head and had hiked the additional 1.5 miles to an overlook of the junction of Whychus Creek and the Deschutes River. This second way to reach Alder Springs involves wading across Whychus Creek - which was knee high the end of May 2020.  After resting a bit, we returned to our car the way we had come and made it there 10 minutes before a violent thunderstorm hit. It was a great day.

On May 16, 2020 we returned to Newberry Crater to enjoy the newly reopened monument. We traveled as far around East Lake as we could, stopping at the boat ramp parking near the lodge as the road was blocked past that. We walked past the barrier through the empty East Lake campground until we came to the Cinder Hill trail head.  We have hiked this trail before several years ago and looked forward to doing it again.  However, roughly 1.5 miles into the hike, we encountered snow covering the trail and although we were able to continue at least 1/2 mile further, we reached a point where trail markings were no longer visible.  Rather than risk getting lost, we retreated and instead drove back to the Little Crater Hike - the cinder cone between Paulina and East Lake - that we had never hiked.

Although the hike was fairly short and easy, the views were wonderful. We saw the Big Obsidian Flow from a perspective we had never seen before, as well as vistas of Paulina Lake and interesting pumice formations. It was also great to see all the boaters on both lakes enjoying the fishing opportunities.  Although the lodges, camping and Visitor's Center were all closed, at least people can enjoy the views, the lakes and the hikes (snow permitting).

Overlook Mountain Has Panoramic Cascade Views

With views from Mount Adams in the north to Diamond Peak in the south, the stunning panorama of much of the Cascade mountain range is truly breathtaking from the top of Overlook Mt. 

On Saturday, May 9, 2020 we took the 7 mile loop from the parking lot off Canyon Creek Road and hiked up through old growth forest to the top of Overlook Mt, stopping along the way to check out the interesting ruins of the Mother Load Mine (cinnabar used to make mercury) before climbing the 1535 feet it takes to reach the summit. During the hike we had to cross snow fields regularly, getting both our feet and lower legs wet in the soft snow. But we saw some beautiful views of the Ochocos as we climbed and enjoyed seeing many early wildflowers with no one else around us on the trail.

At the summit, we enjoyed both the view and meeting several other hikers who had come up the short route which we took down. Prior to reaching our car, we took the side trip to tour the ghost village of Independent Mine, with its abandoned buildings slowly  falling apart.

It was a wonderful experience and very worth while for anyone who attempts the climb.