The 3 Best Peak Climbs Close to Bend, Oregon

The famous adventure town of Bend, Oregon serves as the arrival and provisioning point for a slew of peak climbs in the nearby Cascade Mountain Range. However, you’ll have to do a significant amount of driving to reach a number of the iconic peaks.

In contrast to driving hours just to reach the base of a mountain, in this guidebook you’ll find the three best peak climbs located closest to Bend, Oregon. All three of the climbs begin on the shoulder of the Cascade Lakes Highway, just west of town.

Of the three climbs, the ascent of Mount Bachelor is the easiest. At just 6.7 miles round-trip, you can polish this hike off in just a few hours.

While the hike to the top of Broken Top is longer, South Sister is more demanding, with an even 5,000 feet of vertical gain required. Both of these nearby mountains provide rewarding peak climbs, but as the tallest of the Three Sisters and the third-tallest mountain in the state, South Sister definitely gets the most traffic of the two.

Start your peak climbing endeavors near Bend with these three easy-to-access volcanoes, then turn your sites further afield!