Oregon · Local Guide

Bend
Hidden Gems

Central Oregon's real outdoor playbook. Five hidden gems beyond the brewery crowds and the Bachelor lift lines — swimming holes carved from volcanic rock, lava tubes that require rappelling gear, and fly fishing sloughs the guides keep quiet about.

5 Verified Gems

5 Categories

About This Guide

Caves & Underground Swimming & Water Wildlife & Birding Fishing Trails & Hiking

All 5 Gems

Bend, Oregon

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Caves & Underground

Arnold Ice Cave — Lower Chambers

\"Beyond the tourist-friendly first 300 feet, the Arnold Ice Cave system extends 1,400 additional feet of mapped passages with year-round ice stalagmites reachi...

Strenuous — rappelling required Oct-Mar only

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Swimming & Water

Benham Falls — East Side Swimming Hole

A secluded swimming hole on the east bank of the Deschutes just below Benham Falls, where calm deep pools form behind ancient basalt columns. Spring upwelling f...

Hatfield Lakes — Southeast Shore Birding Blind

A concealed viewing blind on the southeast shore of Hatfield Lakes — a managed water system off McGrath Road near Bend — where rare migratory shorebirds includi...

Migration peaks: May, Aug-Sep

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Fishing

Deschutes River — Riverhouse Slough Back Channel

A hidden backchannel slough behind the Riverhouse on the Deschutes — created when the river shifted course during the 1925 flood — functioning as a critical red...

Sep-Oct wading, Apr-Jun float

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Trails & Hiking

Shevlin Park — Hidden Rimrock Trail

An obscure rimrock trail along the eastern bluffs of Shevlin Park, offering panoramic views of Bend and the Three Sisters. Known only to trail runners and mount...

Moderate Year-round

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