Deschutes River and Benham Falls (Deschutes County, Oregon)

My next adventure weekend takes me to the area around Bend, OR, which is pretty much the beer capital of the world as far as many enthusiasts are concerned. While my primary objective is to visit and taste at some of the best craft breweries in the world, I always have to find time for some adventure when I'm out and about. Besides, the tap rooms don't usually open until 11 AM or so. I drove from Reno to Bend (a 7-ish hour trip) after work on Friday and then got up early Saturday morning to do a little hiking.

My first hike is along the famous Deschutes River (the brewery is named after the river; not the other way around) and one of its waterfalls, Benham Falls. After driving four or so miles down a paved forest road, I reach the trailhead. It's early still and I only see one other car. The trail follows right along the river, which is larger than the Truckee, but still tiny in comparison to the rivers of my youth in the mid-west. It is a serene view though. Near the parking lot, a cable car rig that was once used to cross the sometimes raging river, has been preserved. Just beyond a modern bridge offers passage across.

The entire landscape here is influenced by the Newberry Volcano, which has sent lava flows to carpet the area many times over the last few millennia. Where water flows over cooled lava, interesting things are destined to develop. Looking out over this river I'm reminded of any of the thousands of outdoor enthusiast posters, postcards, and movies that I've seen through my life. It's picturesque.

Coming to the falls, I try my best to get a good angle, but end up having to climb a small cliff directly above the falls. And the term 'falls' is a bit misused in my opinion. This is more of a group of rapids. I'm not suggesting that it isn't beautiful, but only that a fall implies, at least to me, much more of a vertical drop that what Benham offers. It would be fun to take a kayak over this though.

After exploring around the area a bit more, I turn back and head off for my next destination. While I didn't track this hike on GPS, thinking it was going to be shorter than it actually was, I still hiked right around a mile.