Posts in category 'Why We Love Central Oregon'

Beyond Painted Hills is Blue Basin

Most tourists to Central Oregon will travel to see the Painted Hills, one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon.  But the Painted Hills is just one of three locations of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Located past Mitchell, closer to Dayville, the Blue Basin Overlook Trail is worth the hike and the panoramic views of colorful Blue Canyon worth seeing.  The loop around the canyon is only 3.25 miles, but climbs 900 feet in elevation.  The second hike in the area is an in and back 1.3 miles up the canyon itself with several stops along the Island in Time Trail with descriptions of fossils and wildlife that used to inhabit the area millions of years ago. The Thomas Condon Paleontology and Visitor Center is located just a few miles from Blue Basin and is another must for tourists.

If you plan on traveling to Blue Basin from Bend, be sure to have a full tank of gas before you leave town as there are limited services in this part of Central Oregon. The drive is roughly 40 miles from the Painted Hills and about 120 miles from Bend. In summer the hike will be hot with very little shade.  We did this hike in November and it was cool with few people. 

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...

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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.