Tumalo Falls

Tumalo Falls. Bonnie Moreland (Pubilc Domain)

Tumalo Falls from the parking lot. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Tumalo Falls in June 2024. The foreground snag is gone. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Second Tumalo Falls upstream. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Third Tumalo Falls upstream. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View downstream from the main falls, in June 2024. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

The falls in April 2014. The foreground snag has since fallen. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View down Tumalo Creek from near the falls. The bridge over the creek is the road to the trailhead, which is in the forest to the right. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Tumalo Creek below the falls in April 2014. The distant haze is cloud. The snag at the right has since fallen. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Tumalo Creek above the falls. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

The falls from the trailhead parking lot, in April 2014. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Top of the falls. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View of the observation platform for Tumalo Falls, from farther along the trail, in April 2014. The leaning snag has since fallen. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Chute just upstream from the main falls, in June 2024. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Tumalo Falls. USFS (Pubilc Domain)

Oblique view of the falls in April 2014. The snag to the right has since fallen. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Top of the falls. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

The geology around Bend, Oregon, has been dominated by extensive volcanism over the last few million years. Repeated glacial advances and retreats have also extensively modified the terrain, and the interplay of these processes has led to spectacular scenery.

Tumalo (pronounced “TUM-uh-loh”) Falls is an outstanding example. Located in a heavily forested area, this waterfall flows over an overhanging lip, made by a resistant lava flow, to drop freely almost 100 feet into a glacier-carved canyon. Scars from a major fire in the vicinity in 1979, the Bridge Creek Fire, linger but are now much less obvious due to decades of regrowth.

Several other waterfalls occur upstream on Tumalo Creek, and are worth the extra effort—not least because the crowds drop off above Tumalo Falls itself. The first upper fall is about a mile farther up the trail, and the second is about a quarter mile beyond that.

Know Before You Go

The Tumalo Falls trailhead is reached on a graded dirt road on which passenger cars should be fine in the warm months in dry weather. (The site is not accessible to wheeled vehicles at all in the wintertime.) To get there, take Skyliners Road (also known as US Forest Service 4601 to the west) 8.7 miles west from the roundabout at Mount Washington Drive in Bend. Bear right at a shallow intersection and go 0.2 miles to the intersection with Bearwallow Road (on the right). Go left here, where the road becomes graded, and go 2.4 miles to the trailhead parking.

A National Forest Recreation Pass is required, and there is a vending station near the trailhead. A Federal interagency pass (Golden Eagle or equivalent) is also valid.

Parking is very limited on summer weekends as the area is popular locally. Dogs on lead are OK on Tumalo Trail itself, but the City of Bend Watershed lies just west of Tumalo Creek. No dogs, stock (including horses), or bicycles are permitted on trails in the watershed.