Thanksgiving with Wanderlust Tours!

This week is all about gratitude— well, gratitude, and eating delicious food with loved ones, of course!

This Thanksgiving weekend we’ll be running all of our available tours (psst… caving is a great family activity!) and sharing our love of the natural world with families on their holiday breaks. Fun fact: we’re expecting snow this weekend, so we might even strap on some shoes!

What are you most grateful for this Thanksgiving? We’re grateful that we get to be creative, think up special events for folks in the Bend, Oregon area, and play outside all day, every day.

What else are we grateful for? Well, a whole lot. Check out what our naturalist guides are saying about Thanksgiving:

The Wanderlust Tours staff on the Cascade Lakes Cleanup!

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to be surrounded by supportive friends and family!” — Bethany

Group shot of snowshoe guests enjoying some sunshine in Bend’s beautiful forests!

“I am thankful for all the people who spend time with Wanderlust Tours! This includes our guests, staff members, and our local partners.” — Dave

We partner with excellent local breweries, cideries, and distilleries to bring you tours like the Local Pour and Bend Brew Bus!

“I’m thankful for community, health, clean water, and space to roam.” — Danny

“I'm thankful for people working hard all over the world to protect our wild and natural places!” — James

The staff near Waldport, OR for the autumn retreat.

“I’m grateful that I have so many creative, passionate, conscientious people in my life!” — Brooke

Survivorman Les Stroud performing in a cave for last summer’s Art in Nature series. Check out our upcoming Art in Nature event with Bend Camerata!

“I am thankful to live in a state with such expansive public lands!” — Jeff

We love leading our special event tours from our office in Bend, Oregon! We especially love heading out to Crater Lake: Oregon’s National Park!

Remember to have fun outside with your family this weekend! And Happy Thanksgiving from Wanderlust Tours staff. Stay tuned for our Winter Break activities and events happening in and around Bend, Oregon!

The A-to-Zs of Central Oregon: X is for XERISCAPING

It’s true: Central Oregon is the high desert! We have less water at our disposal: a large portion of our water derives from melt-off in the Cascades rather than rainfall, and for this reason, Bend imposes strict limitations on irrigation within city limits. Because of this, gardeners and designers in Bend have had to get creative with their landscape planning.

An example of xeriscaping in California

WATER CONSUMPTION

You might not consider a garden a great consumer of water. On the contrary, gardens that require a sprinkler system can consume HUGE amounts of water! According to the Washington Suburban Sanity Commission, “running a typical sprinkler from a standard garden hose (5/8”) for one hour uses about 1,020 gallons of water; if you run it three times per week, that is about 12,240 gallons per month.” That’s a whole lot of water!

Photo courtesy of Nature’s Plan, LLC

THE 7 PRINCIPLES OF XERISCAPING

According to WaterUseItWisely.com, the most important principles of xeriscaping are the following:

• Planning and Design

• Soil Improvement

• Practical Turf Area

• Efficient Irrigation

• Mulch

• Low Water-Use Plants

• Appropriate Maintenance

Check out their website for more tips on how to xeriscape in your own yard!

The careful use of stone is quite common

A garden like this can require over 12,000 gallons of water a month!

In the desert, we simply can’t afford to use that much water for our garden. For this reason, xeriscaping is super popular for the homes and public spaces in Bend.

This philosophy conserves water, and ultimately protects the environment by encouraging native plants to grow and thrive. Native plants in Central Oregon are naturally drought-tolerant, and require very little to survive.

Succulents and hardy drought-resistant plants are popular in xeriscaping

You can even have flowering plants!

RESOURCES

It’s always a great idea to learn about the native plants in your area. These are always the best choice for planting a garden, because they are meant to thrive in your yard’s particular climate. It’s also important to encourage the thriving of native plant species (being mindful of invasive species, of course!) in order to support a healthy local ecosystem.

Check with your local plant nursery to see what native plants require the least amount of water. In Bend, Clearwater Native Plant Nursery and Wintercreek Restoration and Nursery are great resources for purchasing and consulting about native plant varieties.

PlantSelect has some ready-made landscape designs to get you started on your design ideas. Check Pinterest and YouTube to see what other people have done. With xeriscaping, you can have a beautiful garden in the desert, while protecting the local ecosystem!

Enjoy lush greens, without the water consumption!

The A-to-Zs of Central Oregon: W is for WARM SPRINGS

Three women on the Warm Springs Reservation in 1910.

Photograph of a Warm Springs Brave, from the Smithsonian Museum

THE NEWCOMERS & THE NATIVES

In December 1843, John Fremont was leading an expedition of discovery through a wintry Oregon landscape. After traversing a particularly snowy ridge (which he aptly dubbed “Winter Ridge”), Fremont and his party found themselves stuck in high snow, unable to move quickly or keep warm. It was a dangerous and unfamiliar landscape for these explorers, but they pressed on, in order to learn the geography of their relatively new surroundings.

It’s widely agreed upon that, though brave, Fremont and his party likely wouldn’t have made it very far on their subsequent journeys had they not had a chance encounter with a few hunters from the Northern Paiute tribe. You can imagine the scene: the Europeans attempting to conquer their unfamiliar surroundings, and the native people happening upon a (likely comical) scene of immense effort. Luckily, the Northern Paiute hunters shared a simple, elegant solution for traveling by foot in the winter: snowshoes!

This is just one anecdote revealing how early American pioneers relied on the native people to survive in the West, learning from them and adopting their skills and habits.

An old photo of the reservation, dated 1910.

Official logo of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

WARM SPRINGS

Today, we’re talking about an important link to the long history of Central Oregon: the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The Confederation consists of the Northern Paiute, the Wasco, and Warm Springs tribes.

The current Confederation was officially formed in 1938. Today, the enrolled membership of all three tribes totals over 5,000. Over 3,000 enrolled tribal members reside on the Warm Springs reservation, which contains the tribal headquarters.

Location of the Warm Springs Reservation in relation to the lands the tribes used to occupy before white settles uprooted their people. Image courtesy of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

1855

1855 was a landmark year for the relationship between the United States government and Native Americans in the Northwest. That year, the US government presented treaties to several tribal leaders in the Northwest, most with terms that significantly reduced the rights and lands of the native people.

Among these are the Treaty of Washington (which affected the Chippewa, Wyandot, Chicksaw, Winnebago, and Choctaw tribes), and the Treaty of Point Elliot (signed by Chief Seattle and members from the Duwamish, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Lummi, Skagit, and Swinomish tribes).

Warm Springs and Wasco tribes treated with United States in the Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon, officially ceding 10 million acres of native-occupied lands to the United States.

WARM SPRINGS TODAY

The Warm Springs Reservation encompasses 1,019 square miles (640,000 acres), and is bordered by Mt. Jefferson, the Deschutes River from west to east, the Mutton Mountains, and the Metolius River from north to south. The reservation lies primarily in parts of Wasco and Jefferson County, but small parts fall into six other counties.

One of the main tourist attractions in Warm Springs is the Indian Head Casino.

We recommend stopping by the Museum at Warm Springs for a deeper experience of the history, art, and culture of the Warm Springs people.

The High Desert Museum will also have an excellent exhibit through January 20, 2019 called By Her Hand: Native American Women, Their Art, and the Photographs of Edward S. Curtis. Curtis was a prolific photographer of the native people in the Pacific Northwest, and a great many Warm Springs tribal members are included in his portraits.

Today, Warm Springs regularly hosts events celebrating the culture and heritage of the Warm Springs people. These are very special events, with music, dancing, and rituals passed down from generation to generation. You can check out the Warm Spring website, and like their Facebook page to be kept in the loop!