Cascades-Tumalo Falls

A real easy hike, that can be totally adaptable based on how far the kids want to go is Tumalo Falls. A quick 20 minute drive from Bend, Tumalo Falls is actually a series of falls along Tumalo Creek which flows from the beautiful crags of Broken Top to the Deschutes River.

On a crisp fall day, young Drake, Shane and I headed up the creek.



The boys enthusiasm was raging as we passed the first falls-the dramatic Tumalo Falls. This is the one that you can pretty much drive to. With a 90 foot drop, it is loud and impressive. It's still incredible to me that this is a short jaunt from our house.


As always with the boys, we hike at their pace. This means lots of interesting stops to check out bugs, sticks, rocks and splash in the water as we were just about to do after this photo.



The Tumalo Creek Watershed is recovering from a fire 30 years ago that was unfortunately started by a careless camper. Below you can see older doug firs amongst new ones that have grown in since the fire.

Huge props to the local watershed council for the work they've done restoring the creek after the fire. Areas, not unlike what is pictured below, have been repaired and reconfigured to better accomodate fish.

I'll visit here again many times I'm sure...