Deschutes County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Deschutes County

From a single point on the Bend city street grid you can identify eight named major Cascade volcanoes — Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, the Three Sisters (South, Middle, North), Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, and the Newberry Caldera — all within 80 miles, an alignment unique among US cities. The Newberry National Volcanic Monument 35 miles south wraps the largest-by-area shield volcano in the contiguous US (75,000-acre caldera with two intra-caldera lakes, Paulina and East Lake, both with full-service marinas and three USFS RV-friendly campgrounds accepting rigs to 35 ft). Deschutes County covers 3,055 sq mi between the Cascade summit ridge and the Crook County line east, with the population nearly doubling from 115,367 in 2000 to 198,253 in 2020 per Census Decennial — the fastest sustained growth rate of any Oregon county. Bend (population 99,178, the county seat) sits at 3,623 ft on the Deschutes River and is the practical Cascade Lakes staging hub: every commercial outfitter, REI, NW propane refill, and major grocery is on US-97 or Century Drive within a 6-mile radius.

The Deschutes River runs Wild and Scenic-designated downstream of Wickiup Reservoir, and the upper river above Bend holds one of the few remaining wild rainbow trout populations in central Oregon per ODFW fisheries data. Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway (FR-46) runs 66 miles along the eastern Cascade lake chain from Bend southwest through Sparks, Devils, Hosmer, Lava, Little Lava, Cultus, Crane Prairie, and Wickiup Lakes — every numbered lake has at least one USFS-developed campground, and dispersed staging is permitted on FR-spur pullouts where signed. Sunriver and La Pine state-park RV-friendly loops accept rigs to 45 ft; the La Pine SP loop has full hookups, 128 sites, and is the year-round Cascade-base option (Sunriver closes November-April). Wildfire-smoke management in August-October is now a routine planning factor — Bend has averaged 22 hazardous-AQI days per fire season 2017-2023 per OR DEQ AirNow records.