Central Oregon has a plethora of waterfalls, and I plan to see them all. We have had the pleasure of visiting one so far – we went to Tumalo Falls in Bend, Oregon when family was visiting us last summer.
TUMALO FALLS AREN’T IN TUMALO?
I have to be honest here – I figured that Tumalo Falls would be in…well…Tumalo. Seems reasonable, right? WRONG! It is actually located in Bend and is a bit of a drive from Tumalo. We visited Tumalo Falls on an especially warm day, and it seems like everyone else in Central Oregon also chose this activity on that day.
PARKING
Parking can be tricky. There is a small parking lot right near the falls, but when we were there, the lot was full and people had parked kind of willy-nilly. We had our beast of a truck with us, and had a terrible time trying to turn around to get out. We ended up parking way down the street and hiked back to the falls about 1/2 mile. Totally doable, but if you want to park in the lot, I recommend going early in the day.
ABOUT THE FALLS
Tumalo Falls is a 97 foot waterfall which is on Tumalo Creek. The area around the falls is absolutely beautiful. There are trails that lead up to the top of the falls, or you can admire the beauty from below (which is what my sister-in-law, my husband and I did. We let the younger ones do the hiking, while we explored the area a bit.
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HIKING
If you are in the hiking mood, there are 4 trails that leave from the here: Bridge Creek Trail, North Fork Trail, Tumalo Creek Trail & Farewell Trail. We didn’t do any hiking on the day we were there since we had a bit of a hike from our truck to the falls. We did, however, wander alongside the river for a bit.
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The area surrounding the falls is gorgeous. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and I found such beautiful scenery.
If you bring lunch to have while you are there, you can find a few picnic tables along the creek trail which provide plenty of shade.
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Tumalo Falls is open in the summer May – October and winter December – February.
Follow this link for information on Tumalo Falls, including rules & restrictions.
Tumalo Falls is located west of Bend on Skyliners Road, BEND, OR.
