Stay When Everyone Else Leaves

 

Bend is an undeniably good weekend town. It turns out, it might be an even better weekday town.

The river is still here. The trails haven’t gone anywhere. The breweries are still pouring. Downtown is open for wandering. There are simply fewer people trying to do all of it at the same time.

So instead of packing the car Sunday morning and trying to squeeze in one last hike before heading home, don’t.

Start slowly with locally made pastries from Sisters Bakery in The Westman lobby. Take the long way through Drake Park. Find a sunny spot along the river. Wander downtown without an agenda.

Be a rebel and make Monday a play day.

Take Your Monday Outside

Monday morning is when the argument really starts to make sense.

Head for a favorite trail while the weekend crowd is back at work. Grab a mountain bike. Paddle the river. Play a round of golf. When winter arrives, trade all of that for skis or snowshoes and a day in the mountains.

Or let someone else do the planning. Wanderlust Tours leads naturalist-guided adventures every day, year-round, making Monday a particularly good day to head farther afield. Summer brings canoe and kayak trips on the Cascade Lakes, hiking and volcano tours, cave adventures and starlight paddles. Come winter, there are daytime and moonlight snowshoe trips, bonfires in the snow, cave tours and other ways to explore Central Oregon when everything turns white.

The beauty of an extra weekday isn’t necessarily doing more. It’s having a little more room to do whatever brought you to Bend in the first place.

There’s less urgency to have the perfect itinerary. Change your plans. Take the trail that looks interesting. Stop somewhere because you passed it and thought, that looks good.

Basically: you can Bend a little more like a local.