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Hiking is a year-round sport in Bend, where snowshoe trails cut through the snowdrifts.
Bend packs so much into a single high desert city—and still manages to keep its small-town soul even as the population explodes with hikers, skiers, beer brewers, and enthusiastic outdoorspeople. With oodles of sunshine in every season, the town has grown into Central Oregon’s bustling center.
Where to Eat
Bos Taurus
Japanese and hybrid wagyu steaks hold court in a serene downtown restaurant. Servers offer a choice of steak knives to personalize the experience. Slim slices of the highest-quality beef are handled delicately with tweezers, but sides like a compressed Caesar salad and brussels sprouts flavored with pork belly round out the meal.
Wild Rose Thai
The dried rose bouquets decorating the wooden rafters of the beloved downtown Thai restaurant give it a delicate look. Dishes are a little more robust, with noodle and curry classics, plus a coconut soup made from a recipe by the owner’s grandfather.
Rancher Butcher Chef
This lively dining room brings a casual air to big beefy meals, with an emphasis on variety; the menu includes less common cuts like the tender teres major or 80-ounce txuleton. Bacon-wrapped dates are a signature starter, and the large menu benefits from visiting with a large party.
The Victorian Cafe
Given the surrounding architecture, it’s no surprise that a café with this name is actually in a Craftsman building, not a Victorian one, but with a patio like this, who cares? More than 40 years old, it serves grown-up brunch and 24-ounce Bloody Marys. The indulgent French toast and Benedicts were made for recovery after a big day hiking or skiing.
The famed ocean roll.
Sparrow Bakery
A delicate coffee shop delivers all the fancy coffees and creative salads you’d want from a neighborhood café, but the long lines are due to its famed ocean roll, a croissant-like pastry flavored with cardamom vanilla sugar. In the afternoons, Sparrow serves French cream puffs for kids just released from school and the parents who braved pickup.
Spork
Bend shares a lot of DNA with the Portland dining scene, and this order-at-the-counter joint feels straight out of that big city. Curries and noodle dishes feature bright, spicy Thai flavors, and even breakfast dishes like chilaquiles drenched in garlicky tomatillo sauce work for dinner. Expect a line, but service moves quickly.
Zydeco Kitchen
When this Cajun restaurant opened in 2004, Bend was half its size and Creole cuisine was an exciting addition to the Central Oregon landscape. The downtown joint still draws crowds for happy hour or for a dinner menu of jambalaya and barbecued ribs. Parasol Bar on the roof has views and sunshine.
Bosa
In a beer-heavy town, French and Italian flavors are rarer than the ubiquitous medium-rare hamburgers. At this west-side restaurant nice enough for a first date, pasta dishes are topped with local produce and housemade focaccia steals the show, but heftier entrées like steak and fish are also available.
Things to Do
Mount Bachelor
One of the Cascades’ silent volcanoes became a ski area in 1958 and is now a huge mountain-wide network of chairlifts and ski runs. Ski season often runs until late spring, and it transitions to mountain biking and zip-lining in summer. The area includes dogsled rides in winter, plus trailheads for snowshoeing and hiking. Many popular trails around the nearby Three Sisters peaks require advanced permits in summer.
The Ale Apothecary is one of dozens of Bend breweries.
Breweries
Though the stalwart Deschutes Brewing opened in the 1980s, Bend became a true craft beer destination in the twenty-first century. The city is now home to more than 30 makers, ranging from tiny specialty operations to heavy hitters that have since been bought out by large corporations. The downtown Bend Visitor Center has Bend Ale Trail maps and bingo cards for roving drinkers.
The Last Blockbuster
The company declared bankruptcy in 2010, but the last outpost of the once-ubiquitous video rental chain sits in a strip mall in Bend. Today it’s as much shrine as shop. The center of the store is all merch: Fanny packs. Baby onesies. Trucker hats that say “Be Kind Rewind.” (Most items are made in Bend.) You can also rent DVDs, including rare titles that aren’t streaming anywhere, though you must have your own player at home. The laminated Blockbuster card that comes with a membership is a souvenir unto itself.
High Desert Museum
Despite the name, the long-standing wildlife institution just south of Bend isn’t really about static, look-don’t-touch exhibits. The property has nature trails and a reconstructed ranger station and ranch cabin, and regular wildlife encounters show off raptors, river otters, and porcupines. It’s a place to wander both inside and outside and understand the unique characteristics of the high desert—especially at a new volcano exhibit opening in February—and is open year-round.
Pilot Butte
No time for a hike outside of town? This hill right in the middle of Bend has a corkscrew trail leading to the summit as well as a drivable road, making it one of the most accessible viewpoints around. Like so many geographic features in the area, it has a volcanic history; it’s one of many cinder cones that dot the high desert.
Tumalo Falls
In summer, the giant waterfall in the forest outside of Bend, nearly 100 feet high, is the starting point; you can drive close to the falls and then depart on hikes through the ponderosa pine. In winter, the approach road closes to cars but is available for hikers, snowshoers, and fat-bikers for a five-mile round-trip trek.
Old Mill District
It’s more than a mall. The skeleton of the old lumber mills that shaped Bend’s early town history is still visible in the outdoor complex of shops, movie theater, and restaurants. The area makes for a good starting point for strolls along the riverfront or a concert at the town’s large outdoor amphitheater.
Deschutes River
The waterway takes a sharp jog here in the Central Oregon desert, giving Bend its name. The Deschutes is home to floaters and paddlers all summer; the city estimates that a quarter of a million people take the water voyage every year. Rapids and a small dam delineate the usual two-mile route, and a summer shuttle ($5) operates for easy return to the Riverfront Park starting point. Tube and boat rentals are available, but life jacket rentals are free. For a calmer river experience, trails line each side just upstream with a bridge to connect them, making for an easy hiking loop.
Newberry National Volcanic Monument
These federal lands aren’t quite like Mount St. Helens, even if they have a similar history—they preserve remnants of dramatic volcanic activity. Here that means Lava Butte (you can drive most of the way up), a caldera 17 miles across, an obsidian flow, and a lava tube you can hike through. Visitor centers and access to most of the geologic features are closed in winter.
Where to Stay
Oxford Hotel
It doesn’t get more convenient than downtown’s central boutique property. The area’s limited parking means that the pricey valet option is usually worth it, but dining and entertainment are walkable. The property has a musical bent; free loaner guitars are available to guests, and a long-running jazz concert series takes place in the ballroom.
Campfire Hotel
The idea isn’t a new one: Take an otherwise unassuming motor lodge and give it a colorful, youthful overhaul. But Campfire does it well, treating an old Best Western to an outdoorsy makeover with bright orange and yellow touches. The year-round pool and hot tub add to the appeal, plus it has a bar run by local cocktail experts.
McMenamins Old St. Francis School
Another regional chain with a Bend presence. The usual McMenamins touches are there—knickknacks and painted murals, the reimagining of an old institution, this time a school. The indoor soaking pool, with its monk-themed tile mural and ornate fountain, is a draw even for those not staying at the hotel.
LOGE Bend
If you’re going to have a hip Northwest hotel mini-chain, you need to have a Bend outpost. LOGE Camp’s location on the highway that links the city to Mount Bachelor makes it one of the most convenient lodgings for outdoor activity, even if rooms are fairly simple. Some gear rentals, like paddleboards and mountain bikes, are free for guests.
