Last August, we went down to Oregon for my family’s annual rafting vacation. For this year, H and I wanted to finally make it down to Bend. We’d heard so much about the small, Eastern Oregon town, but never made it down there for a visit. So we rented the sweetest AirBnB and spent a couple days checking out Bend.

We ate dinner at Deschutes Brewery, where our server recommended we hike out at Smith Rock State Park (our hosts said the same thing). He also said that, if Smith Rock was busy, or it was too hot, to hike down to Steelhead Falls. We did a little stand up paddle boarding for the first time, and I’m hooked.

On our last day, on the way to Maupin to meet my family, we decided to go for a hike at Smith Rock State Park. We made it about 3/4 of a mile in, and I realized…I’m not dressed for this. It’s 102 and I wasn’t doing so great. So H and I headed back down (and then up) to the parking lot, and drove over to Steelhead Falls. Our server had said if we hiked about 1/2 mile past the waterfall, there was a small beach where we could swim.

So after a quick car change, we hiked down to the falls (all of 3/4 of a mile, super easy) and that’s what we did. We ran into a bunch of other Deschutes Brewery servers hanging out there on their day off, and once we’d cooled off quite a bit, we hiked back up, soaking wet and covered in sand, to change into dry clothes. Thank goodness for keeping a towel in my car. 🙂

Bend is a magical little town, and it’s jumped up my list to one of my favorite places to visit in the Pacific Northwest. I’ll be back to conquer you, Smith Rock.