Saturday, June 3rd – Wednesday, June 7th
LaPine State Park, Bend
We drove north out of Crater Lake area toward Bend. After
meeting some RV campers in Sequoia, they had advised us to not miss the Bend
area. They live nearby in a town called Sisters. They were correct! There are
so many outdoor activities there and the regional area is all about being
outdoors and dogs! They love their dogs in Bend, everything is dog friendly.
Our kind of place.
On our drive north to central Oregon we began to see more of
the Cascades in the distance. It was an easy drive to LaPine State Park, which
is about 20 miles south of Bend. This is a lovely remote park, so remote that
we didn’t have any cell signal, but we managed without it. The Deschutes River
flows right through the park and provided opportunities for paddling and
hiking/biking trails along the river. When
we arrived there, we were informed that this area is in the “high desert”. Wow,
it didn’t look like desert to me, but the altitude definitely qualifies. The
main vegetation there are ponderosa pines, juniper trees and sage brush on the
ground. It was actually quite beautiful with forests all around. Also, this
area is part of the Cascades Volcanic Arc, and it was visible with most
surrounding rock structures being volcanic in nature. While there, we hiked and
biked several trails that were extensive within the park.
Just southeast of Bend is the Lava Cast Forest and the Mt.
Newberry volcano, with obsidian and volcanic rock flows throughout the area.
Also there is the Lava River Cave, which we toured. They rented high power lanterns
to carry inside the cave as it was pitch black. The cave goes on for about 1 mile,
we hiked back in a little over halfway then turned around. It was really
interesting; we have been in many caverns, but nothing like this one. It was
very unique. We also visited the Lava Butte, which is a non-erupted volcano
that collapsed and became a butte. We hiked the short trail around the top of
the butte and had great views of the surrounding valley. Mt. Bachelor, Mt.
Newberry, Broken Top Mountain and the three Sisters Peaks were easily visible
from there.
We went into Bend a couple of days to check it out. This
city seems very new, the architecture looks like western/lodge/modern. Very
interesting place with a lot of great ideas for living and tourism. The
Deschutes River flows right through downtown and they have built a water park
in the river that includes white water, small rapids for kayaks or tubing and
simply swimming and playing in the water. Part of the park includes hiking, running
and dog walking trails. Another afternoon we went into town to walk around,
visit a brewery and eat some dinner. We were in the older part of downtown and
it was so much fun to experience this wonderful city.
One day I ran a kayak shuttle for Kurt, he really wanted to
get on the Deschutes River. He paddled about 10 miles downstream where I picked
him up at a boat launch. The weather was perfect and he had great views of the surrounding
mountains.
There was also a large mountain biking trail system west of
Bend. We spent two days there biking Phil’s Trails. There were over 100 miles
of trails for all skill levels of mountain bikers. The trails I rode were not
very technical or difficult, but were so much flowy fun. Kurt enjoyed the black
diamond trails and we really had a lot of fun. Biking is so popular in Bend,
the trails were packed both times we were there, even on a weekday. I wish that
we had the time to ride once more.
Thursday, June 8th
– Sunday, June 11th
Deschutes County
Fairground RV Park, Redmond
After spending 5 days in the Bend area, we decided to move a
little further north to Redmond. This area also has so many outdoor activities.
We also found out there was a rodeo in Sisters that week, which is much closer
to Redmond. Redmond is a laid back smaller town, filled with country people and
surrounded by agricultural lands.
Downtown Redmond has a unique feature, the Dry Canyon. This
is a shallow canyon that has been developed for recreation purposes. Along with
hiking and mountain biking trails, there is a dog park with two fenced areas
where dogs can run off leash. There are also baseball fields, an amphitheater,
disc golf, playgrounds, tennis courts, skateboard park, and a soccer field.
Several miles north of Redmond is Smith Rock State Park.
This amazing landscape has numerous hiking and mountain biking trails, along with
rock climbing trails. Smith Rock is a volcanic creation, once a caldera the overlying rock collapsed into an
underground lava chamber. The rock and debris then solidified
into rock, creating the rock as it is now. The
Crooked River runs through the park and provides a lush base for the park. We
spent the day there on hiking trails with the dogs. We all headed up the Misery
Ridge Trail, Kody and I made it up about 1 mile, then we headed back down to
hike some of the river trails. Kurt and Luca continued to the peak, then hiked
down the back side trail and around to the river trail. What an amazing
stunning rock park. We really enjoyed our day there and would recommend this to
anyone visiting the area.
We attended the Sisters Rodeo on Saturday night. We drove to
the town of Sisters for the afternoon, walked around this quaint little
mountain town and had a great Mexican food lunch. It was so exciting to finally
see a rodeo on this trip. Typically, rodeos start in early summer out west, so
we were too early for any other city’s rodeos. This was a premier rodeo for the
northwest region. This was a PRCA event, so the cowboys were very good at their
events. The performance was typical rodeo; bronco riding, bull riding, calf
roping, team roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing and a special entertainer.
This cowboy brought out in an old car his wild mustang that he had trained
and his herding dogs and put on a very special show with his animals. I was not able to get many pictures of the
event riding since it was getting dark and the performers moved so fast that
the pictures were just not great. We really had a fun time at this event, even
though the weather was so cold, around the low 40s with wind. Wow, good thing
had clothing for the cold weather. We hope to find more rodeos along our path
forward. Maybe in Montana or N. Dakota!
After visiting this part of central Oregon, this would be a “go
back” destination for us. We really enjoyed our time here; the activities, the
people and the beautiful countryside.
