We had heard about how amazing Bend, Oregon was more than once and were really excited to check it out for the first time ourselves! When we first got into Oregon, we stayed for a few nights at Collier Memorial State Park in Chiloquin, OR. We really liked it a lot! We visited a free miniature train museum where we got free train rides and also went to a logging museum that we could bike to from our campground. We loved staying there and recommend that beautiful campground to anyone passing through! 

We have never been to Oregon before, so it’s a real treat to see the towering green trees in spring and experience it together as a family for the first time. Just driving around is a treat, seeing the incredible landscape all around! We were excited to get to Bend to reconnect with some of our favorite traveling families and enjoy Oregon some more. 

There were actually a LOT of full time families at Bend-Sunriver Campground in early June when we were there. The weather was really nice and we enjoyed the heated pools, hottub, western village on site and biking around. We scored 3 sites together with 2 of our favorite families, which was a blast! The campground is heavily wooded and the kids created their own village in the woods, as well as a few traps!

We took several bike rides together around Bend with friends, exploring the beautiful area. There were 6 adults and 8 kids in our crew! We were quite a sight, riding with our bike gang around town. The Deschutes River runs through the city, and we loved riding by it, picnicking by it and playing in it! There is one part of the river where surfers line up and take turns surfing in a wave, and it’s a lot of fun to watch! 

We enjoyed Good Life Brewing- twice! It had great beer as well as a large grassy yard with games so the kids could have fun as well! The food was delicious too. We experienced a blast from the past by visiting the very last Blockbuster video store on the planet! We rented some DVDs for only $.99 for a whole week! So. rad.

One really unique thing we did was visit Lava Lands, which is part of the Newberry Volcanic National Monument. We got to hike through a cave… that was created from lava flow! We brought flashlights, as it was pitch black in the caves. It was an adventure for sure. After the caves, we drove up to the top of Lava Butte where we could see a TON of lava rocks and beautiful views all around. 

One week just wasn’t long enough in Bend and it’s on our list of places we want to revisit for SURE!