Monday, December 1, 2008
Future home of Riverbend Community Park
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A passion for recreation is what brings many people to Bend, Oregon. Located in the high desert of central Oregon, Bend is famous for its many forms of outdoor recreation. Kayakers and rafters shoot through the exciting triple waterfalls of the Deschutes River. The Deschutes, Metolius and Crooked Rivers also offer fantastic fly fishing, with more than 500 miles of streams and rivers stocked with trout and steelhead. Golfers have over 20 top-rated courses nearby, offering every kind of golf challenge. Mountain bike cyclists can choose off road riding in uncrowded lush forests, high mountain peaks, lava fields or desert.
Mt. Bachelor's ten alpine lifts, six of them high speed, give skiers 3,683 skiable acres of slopes, with 1,600 acres groomed daily. Parks and pipes for snowboarders are a priority, making Mt. Bachelor one of Oregon's premier snowboarding areas. Cross country skiing on the 56 kilometers of trails on Mt. Bachelor is a popular winter sport. Snowmobilers have 560 miles of groomed trails to choose from in the Deschutes National Forest, with 175 miles of that in the Bend District. Snowtubing, snowshoeing and sled dog rides are also exciting and memorable activities for your family.
World class rock climbing and miles of hiking trails at Smith Rock State Park makes it a popular retreat for climbers and hikers. Backcountry hikers and campers head into the solitude of the Three Sisters Wilderness, while others take a hike in the more than 2.5 million acres of national forests in the Bend area. Parks and picnicking abound in and around Bend. Almost all of the parks, lakes and rivers in the area have picnic areas. Bend has recreation fun for everyone!
Walking, shopping or dining in historic downtown Bend enhances your recreational experience. Drake Park's Mirror Pond, the jewel of downtown Bend, is a small lake with ducks, Canadian geese, and a pair of swans from Queen Elizabeth's royal swannery in England. The wide stretches of green grass provide a restful counterpoint to the old brick and masonry buildings that compose Bend's business area. Galleries, restaurants, outdoor eateries, boutiques and specialty shops are all within easy walking distance. Farther from the downtown area, the Old Mill District, located on a site previously used for lumber mills, features upscale shopping, trendy restaurants and an outdoor amphitheater which is used for summer concerts. A selection of shopping malls and factory outlet shopping is available in the areas outlying Bend.
For a panoramic view of Bend and the volcanic peaks around it, take a walk or a drive to the top of Pilot Butte. From this 511 feet high volcanic cindercone, you can see a vista of the high desert region, including nine snowcapped Cascade peaks. A few of the peaks you'll see are the Three Sisters, Broken Top Mountain and Mt. Jefferson. An even finer view can be found at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. This monument stretches from Paulina Peak to the Deschutes River and includes hiking trails, lava formations, obsidian fields, and waterfalls, as well as incredible scenery. Also in the Newberry Monument area is the 18 square mile Newberry Crater, which includes Paulina and East lakes, two of Oregon's best mountain fishing lakes.
Spelunking, also called caving, in the lava tubes at Skeleton Cave, Arnold Ice Caves or Lava River Caves will show you how the underground half lives. Lava River Cave, Oregon's longest continuous lava tube, is a good beginner cave for families to explore. Geocachers can look for the Earthcache located at this site. All cavers should bring their own light, and wear warm clothing and boots - the cave temperature is approximately 40 F.
No one can accomplish all there is to do in Bend in one visit. Choose a few of the many opportunities waiting for you, and then, plan what you will do on your next trip to this recreation mecca.
31 comments:
This is a beautiful place. I'm from Eugene that's why I checked on your place. :)
Nice world you've got there. Love the photo with the ducks, all the photos are great, of course.
Nice outing and thanks for showin us around.
I would enjoy myself canoeing ther too. Thanks for the walk around your park.
looks like it will be a wonderful place to while away the hours. nice to see bend is investing in the future this way. thanks for sharing.
lovely world!
That entry level rock climbing place looks good enough even for me.
Thanks for the tour.
Your part of the world is lovely. I will link this blog too. Happy tuesday.
This is the kind of world we all need. What a fabulous place and those images are wonderful.
Wonderful images of your world.
I enjoyed talking that walk with you :)
Lilli: What a great tour of your area. You had some neat photos of the area.
So many interesting, and definitely inviting pictures! Thank you for your visit and greetings from Croatia.
That looks like a great place to go and walk around. Great there is so much for the children to do there. All good shots and I love the last shot. So peaceful.
Nice pictures Lilli. I think I'd enjoy the park and the walking out on that bridge.
this is such a beautiful area. & your weather is so warm! We haven't been past 50 degrees in a few weeks!
Wow, they went for the high-end pavers too! Not an inexpensive proposition at all. But worth it for a setting like this one. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet on stuff like that. Nice collection you have here, and it looks like they've managed to maintain some balance between form and function in the process too. Makes everybody happy.
(and psst... that's a kayak... canoes don't have decks.)
Beautiful place! Lovely without snow.
Looks like it will be a great place for families to spend time. We need all the green areas we can get! Lovely!
This looks super! Love the picture of the guy canoeing, and the one with the ducks. Nice pictures and interesting post.
I envy the blue skies on your part of the globe...simply beautiful!
little by little we see each other's world...thanks for sharing yours and for visiting mine!
All the photo's are wonderful. Looks like a nice, relaxing vacation spot.
Love the photos! I lived in Portland for sixteen years, so they made me a bit nostalgic. Love the canoe!
Looks like your world is still enjoying good weather! Hope you have a great week too.
it is a beautiful park and covers everything it looks like! Our weather has not been as nice as yours! Its COLD in Georgia!
Lovely already, and it's still under construction. I could imagine spending a lot of time there.
That's an interesting development, to be sure. Already it looks great.
Enjoyed looking around your world this week. Lovely photos too.
Oregon looks like such a pretty part of the world. Thanks for sharing
I liked - nice pics:)
Beautiful pictures...I just wanted to dispell some rumors about the pavers after reading a couple of the posts. (I'm very familiar with them.) The pavers used in this project are very economical; more so than most would think. The particular ones used here are by no means "high-end" in terms of cost, just quality. In fact, on a price scale, these are probably one of the most affordable pavers you're going to find. Anways, I just wanted you guys to know that it looks like a million bucks, but I don't think it cost quite that much!
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