5 Best Things to Do Near Sunriver OR
One of the great outdoor resort destinations in the American West, Sunriver, Oregon delivers a “high-desert” luxury experience with everything from whitewater rivers to ice-swaddled volcanoes to get acquainted with. Drenched in heapfuls of glorious, year-round sunshine, this resort village also happens to be an amazing place to take to the golf course.
Set on Central Oregon’s High Lava Plains snug against the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range, Sunriver comes enveloped by the Deschutes National Forest and offers ready access to incredible recreational sites—and, certainly, a downright intoxicating scenic spread that marries Cascade snow peaks, sunshiny ponderosa woodlands, and far-spreading juniper and sagebrush seas. It’s all yours to savor—with hot tubs, firepits, outdoor patios, decked-out kitchens, and more—thanks to the top-of-the-line accommodations our Sunriver 100 Collection™partner, Cascara Vacations Rentals, offers. Here’s a run-through of some of the can’t-skip things to do in Sunriver and its surrounds!
Stargaze at the Oregon Observatory
Associated with the Sunriver Nature Center (more on that in a moment!), the Oregon Observatory (57245 River Rd, Sunriver, OR) ranks as the largest astronomical facility of its kind in the U.S. Sponsored by NASA, the observatory boasts numerous telescopes available for public viewing of the glorious night skies that make Central Oregon a nationally renowned stargazing hub and one of the linchpin regions of DarkSky Oregon’s efforts to promote night-sky awareness and appreciation and combat light pollution.
Sunriver, in fact, is the first officially designated International Dark Sky Place—a classification established by DarkSky International—in the Beaver State, and has lighting restrictions in place to maintain the inherent quality of its afterhours skyscape, enhanced by the community’s relatively high elevation and dry climate.
From individual stars and planets to nebulae and comets, the Oregon Observatory—without question among the premier Sunriver attractions—gives you front-row seats to the magnificence of our cosmos. Open Wednesdays through Sundays for visiting, the facility also runs planetarium shows and guided “star parties.”
Get Your Natural Grooves on at the Sunriver Nature Center
Whether you’re fraternizing with a Eurasian eagle-owl (the world’s biggest owl) or a gyrfalcon (the world’s biggest falcon), picking up a seedling of Central Oregon’s most iconic pine to help support Project Ponderosa, or helping out with the annual Christmas Bird Count, the Sunriver Nature Center (57245 River Rd, Sunriver, OR) helps locals and visitors alike get acquainted with ecological wonders from the region and from well beyond it.
Reptiles and amphibians are among the showstoppers in the Creature Cave, while the marvelous native plant communities of the High Lava Plains and the Cascade foothills take center stage in the Beard Family Botanic Garden. Watch for nesting trumpeter swans and other wildlife on Lake Aspen, and take in the buzzing bustle of a real, live, ever-engrossing honeybee colony, some 10,000 members strong.
Visit Newberry National Volcanic Monument
Crater Lake—the pooled maw of Mount Mazama in the southern Oregon Cascades—may be much better known, but Newberry Volcano is, when all’s said and done, just as spectacular. Indeed, this huge stratovolcano, which topographically resembles the subtle but sprawling swell of a volcanic shield, is one of the biggest, volume-wise, of its kind in the conterminous U.S. Set several dozen miles east of the crest of the Cascade Range, Newberry Volcano likely boiled into life some 300,000 years ago or so and is the centerpiece of Newberry National Volcanic Monument, established in 1990 and just a stone’s throw from Sunriver.
The monument’s a crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest, no question, even if, again, it’s more under-the-radar as compared to Crater Lake or that counterpart unit up in Washington State, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The yawning caldera of Newberry Volcano houses two gorgeous lakes, Paulina and East; the high point of its rim, the drivable or hikeable Paulina Peak, just shy of 8,000 feet, delivers a staggering panorama stretching from Cascade snow peaks to the Blue Mountains and the remote drylands of Southeast Oregon’s Great Basin country.
Explore Big Obsidian Flow (formed a mere 1,300 years ago), the lengthy Lava River Cave, and the lava-scoured ponderosa stand called the Lava Cast Forest, and check out the cascades and waterfalls formed when the cinder cone called Lava Butte erupted floods of basalt some 7,000 years ago and rerouted the Deschutes River. Among those whitewater glories is Benham Falls—a favorite hike, as it happens, of Cascara Vacation Rentals owner Stacy Wesson.
Ski (or Snowboard) the Celebrated Cascadian Slopes of Mount Bachelor
Sunriver’s also a prime launchpad for one of the great ski areas on the continent (and among the biggest in the U.S.): Mount Bachelor, occupying the snow-clobbered slopes of a beloved Cascade Range volcano. Named for its topographic standoffishness with respect to the nearby Three Sisters, Mount Bachelor offers what’s typically a gloriously long ski season, and also, uniquely in the lineup of major Cascade “fire mountains,” a chairlift that goes almost right to the summit.
Besides the world-class downhill skiing and snowboarding, the Mount Bachelor Ski Area (13000 SW Century Dr, Bend, OR) is also a big-time destination for cross-country skiing. Its appeal also goes beyond snowsports: Summer visits can include fabulous mountain biking, hiking, ziplining—heck, even disc-golfing, all of it cast against sweeping high-country panoramas.
Explore the Expansive and Stunningly Beautiful—Three Sisters Wilderness
Among the biggest wilderness areas in Oregon at better than 280000 acres, the Three Sisters Wilderness encompasses absolutely sublime subalpine and alpine ecosystems and scenery. Anchored by the namesake stratovolcanoes—North, Middle, and South Sister, all north of 10,000 feet and grandly clustered unlike the generally standalone giants of the Cascade Range—as well as Broken Top and numerous other summits, this vast wildland includes everything from towering lower-elevation stands of Douglas-fir to high, hoary woods of mountain hemlock and twisted timberline groves of whitebark pine, not to mention spectacular, mountain-bedazzled wildflower gardens such as Sunshine and Park meadows. Other (of many) highlights include the Green Lake Basin, Chambers Lake, and the soaring sightlines from Tam McArthur Rim.
Overlapping with some of the standout hiking, backpacking, and winter trekking in the Northwest, the Three Sisters Wilderness is a peak-bagger’s paradise, with the most ambitious (and conditioned) mountaineers sometimes topping the entire trio and Broken Top—in one very big day of top-of-the-world adventuring.
Make the Most of Sunriver on a 100 Collection™-Curated Getaway
You couldn’t ask for a better selection of vacation rentals to choose from in the Sunriver area than Cascara Vacation Rentals’ inventory, which have uniformly awesome locations and an unbeatable arsenal of amenities. Explore the full collection here!
