I was shocked to step foot in Oregon for the first time to discover that it was not, in fact, wet and green like I’d imagined it. In reality, half of Oregon—including Bend—falls in a climate zone called the high desert. The ‘high’ part comes from the fact that much of Oregon sits above 3,500 feet (Bend is at 3,600 ft) as a result of regular lava flows from 30 million years ago that built up a plateau over time.
The desert part comes into play courtesy of the Cascades Mountains, which trap precipitation coming from the west, preventing it from passing to the east. That puts Bend in what is known as a “rain shadow”, which explains why the Cascades mountain range can see up to 450 inches of snow in a year and Bend will get less than 12 inches of rain annually! That lack of precipitation creates the dry, dusty, desert-like look of Bend. However, as you can see from this map, because Bend is located right on the edge of the high desert (at the red dot), we get to experience the best of both worlds. [Source: https://visitcentraloregon.com/explore/high-desert/]
If we hike in Bend or to the North, South or East, we get views like this:
But if we head to the West for 30 to 60 minutes, we find this:
Cool, huh?
The temps are also a lot milder than my beloved home state of MN. Temps rarely go below zero in winter and average highs are in the low-to-mid 80’s in the summer months. Here’s a look at the average highs and lows throughout the year:
But even when the temp gets closer to 100, which it did a few days this August, it still feels eons cooler than a MN 100 degree day because there’s so much less humidity. All you need is a little shade and it’s doable to remain outside. The hardest thing for me to adjust to has been the huge temperature swings during the day. We generally wake up to temps in the 30’s and 40’s and by mid-day it’s into the 70’s or 80’s. I never know what to wear and am constantly changing throughout the day!
I think the spectacular weather is a big part of the draw of Bend because the milder weather makes outdoor activities possible year round. Bend also gets an average of 300 sunny days a year, so 4 out of 5 times you’re going to get a nice, sunny day for your outdoor activity. And the air always smells crisp and pine-y, except for fire season in August and September when it’s oh-so-very-smokey.
Bend is definitely an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise, and the majority of people we come across are both at ease in nature and spend a lot of time in it. For example, I would say I like spending time in nature, but is my idea of fun a 3-night, 20-mile backpacking/camping trip in the wilderness? Umm, heck no. That sounds terrifying (though it probably would really stretch me…) But for many here, that’s a dream long weekend scenario.
Here’s an amusing example we came across the other day that perfectly illustrates the athletic, outdoorsy people that live here. A few Mondays ago Nick and I stopped at our favorite secondhand outdoor goods re-saler to do some shopping. When we got to the door, we found this sign:
We both laughed and smiled at each other, and said, “How very Bend!”
I mean, can you even imagine if your employer told you the mandatory annual bonding activity was a 3 day raft and camp-out in the wilderness? I honestly think that would make think twice about working there. I’d be way out of my element! But knowing Bendites, I bet these employees were thrilled, and those kinds of benefits were a part of why they’d chosen to work there. To each his own, huh??
Who knows, maybe after two years in Bend I’ll be blogging about the rafting trip I just got back from! For now, I’ll just keep sticking to hiking, which I’m still getting the hang of. :)
