Middle Fork Tumalo Falls

The Tumalo Falls area is located about 10 miles west of Bend beneath Broken Top. From Highway 97 in Bend, turn west on Franklin Street. As Franklin runs through town, it parallels a nice park along the Deschutes River. Just after this park - about a mile from 97 - turn right and cross the river on Galveston Street. After passing Century Drive, Galveston turns into Skyliners Road. Follow Skyliners Road for 10 ½ miles, and turn left on FR 4601, signed for Tumalo Falls, just after crossing Tumalo Creek. This gravel route ends in another 2 ½ miles at the Tumalo Falls Trailhead. Following the trail to the top of Tumalo Falls, continue upstream for just over 3.1 miles, passing Double Falls and Middle Tumalo Falls at roughly the 1 and 2 mile marks respectively. Watch for a large wooden post marking a spur to the viewpoint below the falls.While not nearly the tallest or most impressive of the multitude of waterfalls along the various branches and length of Tumalo Creek, the primary falls of the Middle Fork are well worth the extended hike to view. The Middle Fork, largely fed and sustained year round by water diverted from Crater Creek via the Crater Creek ditch, plunges 44-feet over a broad undercut basalt ledge in pseudo-segmented fashion (more segmented during lower periods of flow), followed shortly be a second fall of 9-feet which mimics the upper tier in shape remarkably well. A developed viewpoint for the falls provides an in-your-face vista of the larger upper tier of the falls from immediately on top of the lower tier, but in order to view both tiers collectively one must scramble through the woods (which is easy to to thanks to the lack of brush).