Shevlin Park

I've read about a glorious park we have on the northwest side of town, but until now, had never visited to see what the fuss was all about. Called Shevlin Park, after a lumberman-playboy-football player who donated the nearly 1000 acres to the city back just after the conclusion of World War I, the park comprises a roughly three-mile stretch of Tumalo Creek and the property on both banks. The photos below are in the order that I took them as I walked 6-7 miles through the park.

Upstream to the south and then west, the creek heads to Tumalo Falls and thence into the hills west of Bend where the creek system arises, fed primarily by snowmelt. Shortly downstream of the park, the creek pours into the Deschutes River just south of the town of Tumalo. The southern and western boundaries of the park abut the Deschutes National Forest.

The park contains miles and miles of well-marked and well-used trails, the principal ones being the Shevlin Loop Trail that runs the length of the park on top of the canyon walls and the Tumalo Creek Trail that runs creekside on the west bank. The Tumalo Creek Trail continues south and then west via the Mrazek Trail, primarily a mountain-biking trail, to Tumalo Falls and points west in the Three Sisters Wilderness. The park also extends north along the creek beyond Shevlin Park Road, but for this trip, I limited my exploration to the section between the road and the start of the Mrazek Trail.

From the parking lot just off Shevlin Park Road, I took the first trail I could find and headed for the water, the idea to head upstream with the creek on my left and then cross the creek and return downstream via the loop trail running along the canyon rim, the creek continually on my left. The trail led through a large stand of aspen before coming to a footbridge across the creek. I guess there are no beavers on this section of creek or there wouldn't be this lush stand of willow and aspen, beaver treats both.

Tumalo Creek is Shallow and Just a Few Feet Wide

Canyon Walls Beyond the Creek, Roughly 70-90 Feet High

As I walked the creek upstream, I could clearly see that the trail demarcates two different zones, a riparian zone along the creek and a typical Ponderosa Pine savannah just off the creek. The riparian zone has the usual cast of characters in its creekside thickets, dominated by Western Spirea, Red Osier Dogwood, Woods' Roses, Snowberries, and Chokecherries. In these thickets, I saw dozens of noisy and tiny Mountain Chickadees and Pacific Wrens. By contrast, just feet away, the open savannah is sparsely covered by Idaho Fescue, Wax Currants, and the odd Greenleaf Manzanita.

Fireweed, Chamaenerion angustifolium, Going to Seed

Very Dull Butterfly, A Fritillary of Some Ilk

I Saw Just One Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea

Ponderosa Pine Bark

Stones on the Creek Bottom

Unusual Geology: Is This Pyroclastic Flow?

A Snowberry, Symphoricarpos sp.

It's the Season for Rubber Rabbitbrush, Ericameria nauseosa 

Gorgeous Lewis' Flax, Linum lewisii

Woodland Pinedrops, Pterospora andromedea

As I headed further upstream, the scenery changed a bit first entering an area of a couple of acres that has just burned over in recent years. A few manzanitas are starting to pop up, but they are very small. It amazes me how adapted to fire Ponderosa Pines are. They all have blackened bark at their bases, but it doesn't seem to have affected them. I note that immediately after a fire, they may shed a lot of needles, but they bounce back the next spring.

Burned Over Area

A Burnt Snag

Purple Ray Flower, Could be an Aster, Could be an Erigeron

After the burned over area, there is a really nice meadow surrounded by tall Ponderosas, a pretty perfect place to camp with easy access to water. Once I had wandered through the meadow, I came upon the sign below naming the meadow as Frémont Meadow, a place where John Frémont and his crew camped on what I believe was his second exploration expedition. A colorful guy, he would ultimately settle in California and become filthy rich off gold found on his holdings in the Sierra and then would go to Washington as a Senator.

Shortly after this, I found two plants that I was not expecting and have not encountered elsewhere in this area. The first, a new species to me, is the Blue Elderberry, a western species that is quite uncommon on this side of the Cascades. Out here, I see a lot of Red Elderberries and back east, you could find Black Elderberries everywhere. Note the very dusky blue berries that differ greatly in color from the other species. The other plant, which is extremely common elsewhere, is the Thimbleberry. This is the first time that I have seen it in the Bend area.

Very Scarce in this Area, Blue Elderberry, Sambucus cerulea

Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus

Towards the upper (southern) end of the park, the ubiquitous Ponderosa Pines give way to much denser conifers including quite a lot of Douglas Firs, Western Larch, and Mountain Hemlock. I rarely see this concentration of Doug Firs east of the Cascades, while larches are fairly uncommon at these low elevations as well. Note to self to go back in October and photograph the gorgeous golden needles of the larches before they drop. At this point, I found myself at the southern end of the park where it abuts the Deschutes National Forest. While the trail continues on onto public forest lands, this was my point to do a 180 and take the loop trail back along the canyon rim to my truck.

Southern End of Shevlin Park
The Tumalo Creek Trail Meets the Mrazek Trail in the DNF

Ponderosa Pine, Backlit

Red Osier Dogwood, Cornus sericea, in the Creek Bottom

Creek Partially Dammed by Fallen Douglas Fir

Usually Timid, a Curious Douglas' Squirrel

Mountain Chickadee in a Ponderosa Pine

Rubber Rabbitbrush, Handsome Even After Blooming

After crossing the creek, I headed back north via the Shevlin Loop Trail which climbs from the creek bottom to the canyon rim, becoming ever dustier and drier as it climbs, until it comes out on the plateau above the canyon. This plateau is typical open east-side scrub: tall ponderosas undergrown predominately by Antelope Bitterbrush, Greenleaf Manzanita, and Snowbrush, all brightened here and there by vibrant yellow Rubber Rabbitbrush.

This scrub is perfect for California Quail and at one point, as I was standing on the trail taking a photo of the canyon below, a couple of quail starting really making a fuss at me. It's pretty unusual behavior in that will often call softly to each other to warn about intruders, but they were fussing directly and loudly at me like I was a threat. I imagine that there were a bunch of babies up under the manzanitas; I left quickly so as not to put them under any more stress.

Manzanita Fruit, Showing Red in the Fall

Flicker Nest Cavity in Ponderosa Snag

Coming Back Down Creekside

Back Again at the Start in a Thicket of Willows and Aspens

Shevlin Park is definitely worth a walk. It's not hiking material, being largely flat, but it is a nice place to escape town and get out in the woods for a walk. I really do want to get back after the larches have changed.