Weekend in Central Oregon

A Weekend in Central Oregon

We recently spend a weekend in Central Oregon. We flew into Redmond airport on Friday evening, and left Sunday evening. The weather was perfect, and we filled the weekend with a hike, great food, and lots of local beers.

We’ve been to Bend before, so we sort of knew our way around. This time we got to experience it without the massive snowstorm. For this post, instead of a play-by-play recap, we’re trying a different format. We’ll begin with the hike, then follow that with our restaurant and brewery recommendations from this trip. We’ll likely keep toying with these trip report formats until we find one that we like, so please let us know what you think!

Day Hike at Smith Rock 

Smith Rock State Park is located about 35 minutes north of Bend, OR in the town of Terrebonne. It’s a very well used park, so we’d suggest arriving as early as you can on a nice day. We arrived by 10AM on a beautiful early October Saturday morning, and the lots were almost full. There is a $5 day-use parking fee that can be paid by credit card at the kiosk.

There are a wide variety of multi-use trails all around the park, but most begin down at the  bottom of the canyon near the single foot bridge. We began our hike up the 1 mile Misery Ridge Trail. That trail is part of the popular Misery Ridge Loop. Straight ahead from the footbridge, the trail rises steeply up towards the “Picnic Lunch Wall”, then loops around behind the “Red Wall”. It ends up at the top of the rock formation, with panoramic views of the canyon below before descending down to the “Monkey Face” rock formation. All the names in quotations are popular rock climbing routes that are accessed via the Misery Ridge Trail. In fact, the entire Smith Rock State Park is a very popular rock climbing destination. It appeared to be the #1 activity that Saturday morning.

 We continued on the less crowded Summit Trail, which ultimately looped us up to the northern rim of the canyon, then back down along the river to the footbridge. In all its about a 5.6 mile loop, and takes you through an impressive array of sights. We saw everything from desert rock formations, to pine stands along the Crooked River.

 

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Eating and Drinking in Bend, OR

Night 1:

Immersion Brewing 

Upon our arrival in Bend, we headed straight to Immersion Brewing. Immersion is located on the South end of town, just off Arizona Ave in a cool little commercial plaza area. We missed Immersion on our first trip to Bend, but I’m glad we hit it this time. They’ve got a beautiful taproom, with the bright copper serving tanks sitting behind the bar. It’s a very inviting space. One really unique thing they do at Immersion is the Brew Your Own program. They’ve got a setup of 8 smaller brew kettles, and an impressive array of grains. Groups can come in and brew a special batch of beer on site with the assistance of the on-site professional brewers. Check out their website for more details.

Immersion has a nice variety of beers that rotate through the year. We happened to hit them during fresh-hop season, so we got to try the Get Along Little Hoppies double fresh hopped Imperial IPA. It’s double hopped with fresh Cascade hops, picked by the brewery employees, and comes in at a whopping 9.2% ABV.

We also tried the Sexy Girlfriend, a refreshing sour that comes in at about 5.8% ABV. It’s a nice tart sour, with a good mango flavor. The sourness paired well with the pretzels and rich beer cheese that we ordered to satiate ourselves until our official dinner stop.

Deschutes Pub and Brewery

For dinner, we walked into downtown Bend to Deschutes Pub and Brewery. Really no trip to Bend is complete without at least one beer at Deschutes. As with our previous visit, the beers were good, the food was good… we had another nice experience. I do want to mention a really interesting beer that we tried here, however. From the Deschutes Reserve Series, we tried their Gin Henge. It is their imperial IPA, Hop Henge, aged in oak gin barrels, dry hopped with crystal hops. It’s a big beer, coming in a 10% ABV, and it’s quite complex. The botanical flavors from the gin mixed well with the citrusy aromas provided by the crystal hops. It was all mellowed out from the oak again. I’d suggest coming back here to see what other concoctions the Deschutes brewers are coming up with.

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Day 2:

Rockin’ Dave’s Bagels

Before our hike, we stopped into Rockin’ Dave’s to pick up some food to go. They’re located on the East side of town, off Greenwood Ave. We knew it was going to be good when we saw the smoker out front. They smoke their own pastrami, braise their own corned beef, and roast their own turkey. They make their bagel fresh, every day, and these are the thick, chewy, NY style boiled bagels; something we’ve had a hard time finding in the Pacific Northwest. If you’re in Bend, do yourself a favor and check this place out for some of the best bagels we’ve had in the Northwest.

Bangers and Brews 

Bangers and Brews will be on our “must stop by” list every time we’re in Bend from now on. We apparently lucked out on our first trip to Bend, because the place was packed this time. We were happy to wait in line, however, because with 15+ sausages, 13+ toppings, and 9+ sauces to choose from, there are over 10 thousand possible combinations (probably more)… so we needed some time to decide. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong… just make sure you get something with the chimichurri sauce.

 

10 Barrel Brewing

10 Barrel is another brewery that we didn’t get to check out last time we were in Bend, but I think we’ll have to stop by again. They’ve enjoyed huge growth over the last few years, with brewpubs in Portland, Boise, San Diego, and Denver. But it all started in Bend, OR. We visited the West End pub, on Galveston Ave. They’ve got an indoor space (which we didn’t actually see), and a great outdoor patio with a bar and fire-pit. There are 14 taps to choose from. On this trip, we tried the Savage Belly, a Pepper Beer brewed with 6 different types of peppers. It’s a surprisingly refreshing beer with a bit of a kick.

Crux Fermentation 

Even with the construction going on, we spent longer than planned at Crux. It’s located on the southern end of town, nestled up next to the highway. The construction is currently (as of October 2018) taking up some of their lawn real-estate, but there was still a good crowd outside. They’ve got a couple of corn-hole sets (go to the bar to sign out the bags), and a big fire pit to keep warm. With the great beer, cool atmosphere, and the friendly people, it’s no wonder we always get stuck at Crux.

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Day 3:

Bad Wolf Bakery and Bistro

After a longer-than-planned night out, the Bad Wolf Bakery really hit the spot with their brunch. It was a little busy later on a  Sunday morning, so we had to wait for our food. We’d suggest ordering a pastry to munch on while you wait, like the scones that we demolished. This place is located on the northern end of downtown, just east of the river.

Lone Pine Coffee Roasters

Lone Pine Coffee Roasters is tucked away in Tin Pan Alley, just off Minnesota Ave. We just happened to pass through the alley in the early afternoon, just when we needed a caffeine fix. They roast some great coffee.  The cafe itself is pretty small, with the roasting machine off to the left dominating the scene. There are a couple benches and tables inside, but there’s some seating out in the alleyway as well. We had a normal drip, and a latte. The latte was really well made, nice creamy foam, and the coffee was really well balanced. We’ll be stopping by here again.