BEND, Ore. — I really thought I was going to get a lot of hiking in during a spring break staycation with my 19-year-old twin daughters home from college for the week. Instead we went to, first, Shevlin Park in Bend — always dandy for a nature fix and, more importantly, the perfect excuse for a family on a college tuition-sapped budget to selflessly support a local business by purchasing lunch and coffee while on the west side. I’m guessing Lucy and I made it a mile before we opted to turn around and head for Village Baker to cash in our well-earned repast.
And we didn’t hike much farther than that to reach Hidden Forest Cave, but then it’s only a quarter-mile walk from the parking area to the cave. Part of the Arnold Ice Cave System, Hidden Forest Cave is a Deschutes National Forest treasure, a collapsed lava tube that you can descend down into for photos and exploration. Once you hike down, you’re on the lava tube floor, walking by ponderosas that grow from the floor toward what “Bend, Overall” author Scott Cook describes as “a band-shell type cave overhang.”
Getting there: From Knott Road in Bend, head southeast on China Hat Road. As you pass the Boyd Cave turnoff, continue straight on unpaved China Hat another 2.5 miles to Forest Road 200, on the right. The parking area is a quarter-mile down a bumpy road, leading to the parking area near the mouth of Arnold Ice Cave (closed at the moment). From the parking area, it’s an easy quarter-mile walk south on a sandy road to Hidden Forest Cave. Note that the trail gets a little less defined as you near Hidden Forest cave, which will be on your right, essentially a hole in the ground looking down into open-air portion of the lava tube.
Continue along the trail here, and watch your step, as there’s no railing and you would not want to fall from that height to the floor below. Continue south along the rim trail until you reach the hillside slope that enables access.
