Drake
Park is located on 13 acres in Downtown Bend, Oregon, on the banks of
the Deschutes River. There is plenty of parking along Street, but
you can also park downtown and take the short walk to Drake Park. The
trails are paved and very nice.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The first city
park in Bend, Drake Park is named after Alexander Drake, a developer
who platted a neighborhood in 1910 around the area where the park is
located. This neighborhood is now a historic district, filled with
beautiful residential homes and businesses. In 1920, the land for the
park was purchased and the town folks got busy making it beautiful. You
can read all about it below:
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The park is full of trees, grass, trails,
and easy access for water activities. There are a lot of duck and
geese. Pretty to watch, but the geese have become quite a problem over
the last decade.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
Their poop and other
sediment is filling up the bottom of Mirror Pond, and plans to dredge
there are discussed from time to time. As for the geese, there were
simply too many of them. A couple of years ago, it was decided to kill
off the over-abundance of geese, and give their meat to feed the
homeless at Thanksgiving. That caused quite a debate, and many were not
happy about the decision. I bet that those who got roast geese for
dinner were not complaining though.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The
Deschutes is dammed at Newport Avenue and creates the lovely Mirror
Pond. The lucky people with some of the million dollar Bend houses, get
to live right on the river. I would love that! It is very pretty to
look at those houses and the reflections of the trees and sky.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The red buoys and water fencing mean stop and get out!
Take your canoe or other floating device with you. Otherwise, you will
go over the dam or may just get caught inside it. It happens every
year.
Drake Park is full of a
beautiful variety of trees. Bend used to mainly be a mill town, back in
the old days. In the park, there is a display that talks about that
history, which can be read from this plaque:
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
This pondo looks like it has been through a lot.
But, it is still with us!
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
There is a "highweel" on display by the historical plaque. It was used to haul timber in the early 1900's.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
I love those big old Ponderosa Pines. There is magic in them.
There
are many events held at the park; some weekly, some annual and some no
longer exist. The weekend that I took these pictures, there was a car
show. To read more about the car show, please "CLICK HERE".
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