Miles: 6+ miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 1540ft/6340ft (the lake)
Map: Green Trails Bend Three Sisters 622SX, Caltopo
Favorite Eats After Hike: Spork, The Brown Owl, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike details:
The trails along Paulina Creek and around Paulina Lake are within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in the Deschutes National Forest outside Bend, Oregon. A mixture of groomed and ungroomed trails offer a variety of options through regal straight lodgepole and ponderosa pine woodland. Snowshoers and Nordic skiers will hear occasional snowmobilers off in the distance but staying on parallel trails keeps paths from crossing.
Starting at the large 10 Mile Sno Park lot, a trip to Paulina Lake can start on the Ponderosa Rim or the Paulina View Trail, running each roughly 3 miles. There is also a lesser traveled trail that loops back from the lake on the other side of the creek from the Ponderosa Rim Trail (not shown on maps). The Lakeshore Trail around the contour of Paulina Lake is 7.5 miles but you can take in the views of the caldera within a mile of the junction with the resort road.
The Ponderosa Rim Trail offers a stop at Paulina Creek Falls, a circular cliff wall where Paulina Creek drapes over the edge to cascade 80 feet onto boulders littered below. You may even spy ice climbers as you stand at a paved viewpoint on the trail or take a few switchbacks down to the base of the falls over a short foot bridge.
Arriving at the lake, you have the option of looping back directly or spending time around the lakeshore. After enjoying the tranquil body of water, a loop back on the Paulina View Trail offers a peek at Paulina Peak, a summit for hearty snowshoers with a long day.
My trip report:
11/24/2020, my trip was about 7 miles RT
While staying in Bend on the backside of a road trip in Oregon, we went looking for a nearby snowshoe to take in the bluebird skies we woke up to. Searching on Oregon Hikers, I found the Paulina Creek Falls Trail and it looked like just what we were looking for.
After purchasing a sno-park pass online, we arrived at the 10 mile Sno Park around 10am with only one other car in the parking lot. After using the facilities and taking a picture of the Nordic Trails map, we started up the Ponderosa Rim Trail. Most of it was compact snow in the beginning so snowshoes were probably not necessary but we did avoid making dangerous postholes. Because the terrain was relatively flat and it would have been hard to lose our way, we did cut a few of the turns in the trail and run off trail next to just to make the journey a little more fun. It was all forested, anyway.
At around 2.6 miles in, we hit the day use parking area for Paulina Creek Falls where the snowmobile track connects. It was obvious that this is where most folks turn right around after taking in the falls as the tracks stopped after this. We watched the near frozen falls at the top for awhile before noticing there was a trail down below approaching the base of the falls. Hmmm…
Retracing our steps a bit, we didn’t see a trail sign but after my husband went over the slope a bit, he eventually hit an obvious switchback. It was about .25 miles from the top to the bottom with the lower viewpoint just over a foot bridge. I don’t think it is possible for waterfall views of any angle to get old!
From here, we continued on towards Paulina Lake, the first of two lakes in the caldera area. We arrived where the roads meet at the lake near the Paulina Lake Lodge at 3 miles from the trailhead. I imagined this place was pretty hopping during the summer but it felt like we had it to ourselves today. Paulina Peak rose on our right above the forest, a trek for another day I suppose.
There was a sign for the Lakeshore Trail, so we took that about half mile as it followed around the lake. Sometimes we were on the trail itself and others we were out on the frozen and snow covered edge of the lake (the VERY shallow marshy edge). We stopped when we had a little peek of the caldera and then made our way back over to sunshine and a snack by the large parking lot loop.
We left the lake to make our way back around 1:30pm, taking the Paulina View Trail out. We weren’t sure what kind of view we would have as Paulina Peak was behind us and it was in the forest under powerline but in about an hour we came out into an open meadow and when we turned around we could see the tip of the peak making it worth taking the loop instead of heading back past the falls!
We saw less than a handful of other people making the day one of solitude and beauty. Next time I want to try the trail that loops back on the other side of the creek that I spied while at the waterfall viewpoint but wasn’t sure how far it would take us.
Directions: From Bend, travel south on Highway 97 for roughly 24 miles, then turn left (east) and follow County Road 21 for 10 miles to Ten Mile Sno-Park. Park in the plowed lot there are bathrooms on the far end. You will need a Sno-Park pass.
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