Metolius River Trail – Hike Near Bend, OR
The Metolius River emerges gushing 50,000 gallons a minute from the base of Black Butte. It is an oasis in the Central Oregon arid landscape. In the summer it offers beautiful camping, fishing and cool spots for swimming and relaxing. In November it is a beautiful secluded spot to hike free of the crowds of the summer, as long as you bundle up in some warm layers. My husband and I brought a picnic lunch to enjoy, but we had to eat fast as it was pretty chilly when we stopped hiking. On a Sunday the trails were empty and the only other people we saw were two fly fishermen trying their luck in a crystal clear pool.
There are more than 12 miles of easy walking trail on both sides of the river and several bridges crossing it that make for great loops. The trail stays close to the river so it is easy to access from any of the campgrounds along it’s length and even from Camp Sherman.
A great 6.4 mile hike starts at the Wizard Falls state fish hatchery where you can explore the rustic buildings and working hatchery tanks and follows either bank of the river downstream for 3.2 miles and crosses over the river at Lower Bridge Campground for the return upstream hike.
What: 12+ miles of easy walking trails along the crystal clear waters of the Metolius River with only a couple hundred feet of elevation gain/loss.
Fees: None
Dogs: Allowed on leash
Open: Year-round
Getting There: Leave Bend on Hwy 20 towards the town of Sisters. Continue west on Hwy 20 for 9 miles past Sisters and turn right near milepost 91 at a sign for the Metolius River. Drive straight on paved road 1419, stay right towards the signs for the “Campgrounds” rather than left towards the signs for the “Resorts.” Continue through Camp Sherman on the paved road and turn left at the sign for the Wizard Falls state fish hatchery, about 10 miles from Hwy 20. Note: The Metolius River is about a 40 mile drive from Bend.
Enter in through the gift shop, make your way along the path that sits above the coastline and provides for a magnificent view and ends at the elevator that will take you down into the ocean’s cavern, 200’ below. The path also has whale watching viewers and the whales are there and they are huge! 
Unbeknown to many, Cooks Chasm is actually considered a bay. This is despite the fact that it looks totally like the part of the ocean. Resting at the base of the Cummins Creek Wilderness, Cooks is one of those amazing sites. The difference between high and low tides totally changes the look and accessibility of different parts of the chasm. At high tide you get a wonderful display of the surging ocean that pounds against the walls of this chasm as well as forces the ocean into a blow hole to give the show of the spouting horn, likened to a minature geyser. 
After my trip to Oregon’s Central Coast I was on my way to visit my daughter for her birthday and I was tired as I felt like I had driven for 2 solid days. It was decided after I got to my daughter’s house that I would go get my niece and we would all go to the Asian Festival in Eugene. Now at first I didn’t want to go. Peace & quiet and some downtime is what I was craving not a couple of cars full of kids and what I knew would be a late night. Well I just picked myself up and decided ok here goes nothing. 
My favorite all time place on any of the Oregon Coast is the Devil’s Churn. This place turns me into a crazy freak photographer and risk taker. I have been fascinated with the churn since I was 12 or 13 years old. It was my first time viewing this place and it happened to be low tide and I was able to see a small sea faring vessel 
Local Ocean Seafood sits across the street from the commercial fishing docks., down on Newport’s old bay front. Doesn’t the name just sound so appropriate considering it’s location. I wonder what it is that you think Local Ocean is? Honestly Local Ocean is a restaurant/café. I had never been to Local Ocean but it came on a recommendation and so instead of going to my normal haunt of Mo’s and eating chowder, I came here. 
Waldport seems to be a town frozen in time as much hasn’t seemed to change since I went to school there over 20 years ago. This is still a tiny little town that sits between Florence and Newport. Waldport sits at the mouth of the Alsea River, once famous for it’s steelhead and salmon fishing and still famous for its’ beauty. This little area seems to keep time well with the earlier periods of the late 1900’s and on the surface, technology doesn’t seem to have caught up with the rest of the world. 
I love this place! The mystifying moments of the deep where one can walk through, under and over all those creatures we never see, those that swim in the depths of our vast Pacific Ocean. The tunnels of glass allowed me to see, in a 360 degree view, the different species of fish, sharks, starfish, eels, stingrays and a bunch of other species of which I have no clue as to what they are. What I do know is that being inside this glass tunnel was mesmerizing. You can reach out and touch all these creatures or so it seems. 
As a young child I well remember Agate Beach. We used to camp right on the beach for days on end and my brother and I would spend much of most days exploring and playing in the surf. Today I do not believe camping on this particular beach is allowed but nonetheless I still visit; sometimes for the memory, sometimes to see the changes, sometimes to find the famous agates that this beach is named for. 