Trail Running in Bend
With numerous forest trails close to town, trail running is gaining popularity as more people are choosing the scenery of a trail through the woods or along the river over running through the neighborhoods. There are several hundred miles of trails on which to run in the Deschutes National Forest, but the most popular spots are the ones close to town.
Shevlin Park located at the end of Shevlin Park Road and has a great loop that undulates up through the forest on one side of the park, and down along Tumalo Creek on the other side. There are also picnic grounds and restrooms located here along with access to the Mrazek trail which extends 13 miles up toward Broken Top Mountain.
The Phil’s Trail network is another good location to do some trail running. The trailhead is located on Skyliner Drive a few miles west of Mount Washington Drive. There are a lot of different trails here of varying distances, so you can put together a bunch of different length runs to mix things up. The Phil’s Trail network is also very popular with mountain bikers; so on weekends and evenings this network sometimes sees a lot of use.
Probably one of the most popular trails for running is the Deschutes River Trail. This trail extends from Bend down to Sunriver following along the Deschutes River. The most convenient access points for the trail are from Farewell Bend Park, located on Reed Market Road by the Old Mill, or next to the Entrada Lodge located along Century Drive just past the city limits.
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