Introduction
We were looking for a day hike while staying in Sunriver, OR, about 20 minutes south of Bend, OR. We thought we might go to Black Butte and hike to the top, but the drive was over an hour, and we wanted something closer.
I opened up the AllTrails app and started looking for hikes around Mount Bachelor. I came across the Tumalo Mountain hike, and it was very similar to Black Butte, but an hour closer!
It was ~4 miles, around 1,400 ft elevation gain, and had great views at the top. It was everything we wanted it to be, and the hike turned out great. Finally, we dropped down into Bend for beer, food, and to catch the Ryder Cup at 10 Barrel Brewing.
Destination:
Unlike other routes that I've posted, this route and its statistics are out-and-back.
We were fortunate to find a parking spot at the Dutchman Flat Sno-Park because there was a mountain bike event in the area. Unfortunately, the bathroom was locked, but it's difficult to know if that meant it was closed or locked by mistake.
There are biking trails that work around the base of Tumalo, but it's easy to find the hiking trail because of signage, and it's the trail that heads straight up the hill!
Similar to our Crater Lake hikes, we started at elevation. So whatever momentum we had at the beginning soon faded.
The trail is excellent. It has a steady—but not too steep—incline. Also, the trees and foliage around the trail aren't dense, and you can feel the space and fresh air.
It's interesting the gradual slope that the volcanic cones have. It felt like we were always a few hundred feet from the summit because as we looked up the hill, the trees hundreds of feet up were hidden by the consistent slope.
We loved the trees. We didn't know if they were white pines, similar to Crater Lake, but the twisted pale trees interact well with the shrunk subalpine pine trees.
As we stopped for breaks on the way up, we were happy to turn around and snap photos of Mount Bachelor lurking behind us!
The summit has a nice loop at the top that lets you take in the views from every direction. Looking to the southeast, we saw hazy cinder cones and part of the valley that houses the highway and Bend.
Mount Bachelor is on the west side, and there are great opportunities to examine the ski runs.
The views that make the hike, in my opinion, are to the North. The Sisters and Broken Top are out of sight as you climb up the south side of Tumalo Mountain but poke up and draw you over to the north side of the peak.
A volcanic rock slope offers plenty of room to get some pictures and have a snack.
Photo Credit: Karen Retz
We spent around half an hour at the summit (maybe a little longer) because there were so many great views! Every angle is different.
We kept a nice pace on the way down and ended up back at the trailhead quickly. I kept thinking to myself that this was a perfect day hike.
It was an excellent activity for our last day in the area, and we capped it off by driving into Bend for food and a drink!