Deschutes River

Deschutes River may refer to:

Deschutes River (Oregon)

The Deschutes River /dəˈʃuːts/ in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the drier, eastern flank of the mountains. The Deschutes provided an important route to and from the Columbia for Native Americans for thousands of years, and then in the 19th century for pioneers on the Oregon Trail. The river flows mostly through rugged and arid country, and its valley provides a cultural heart for central Oregon. Today the river supplies water for irrigation and is popular in the summer for whitewater rafting and fishing.

The river flows north, which is unusual in the United States. Several other Oregon tributaries of the Columbia River, however, including the Willamette and John Day rivers, also flow in a northerly direction.

Description

The headwaters of the Deschutes River are at Little Lava Lake, a natural lake in the Cascade Range approximately 26 miles (42 km) northwest of the city of La Pine. The river flows south into Crane Prairie Reservoir, then into Wickiup Reservoir, from where it heads in a northeasterly direction past the resort community of Sunriver and into the city of Bend. In Bend, much of the river's water is diverted for irrigation by the Central Oregon Irrigation District; as a result, the river is much smaller when it leaves the city. Mirror Pond is an impoundment in central Bend for electricity generation and to serve as a scenic area in Drake Park.

Deschutes River (Washington)

The Deschutes River is a 50-mile (80 km)-long river in Washington, United States. Its source is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Lewis County, and it empties into Budd Inlet of Puget Sound at Olympia in Thurston County. It was given its name by French fur traders, who called it Rivière des Chutes, or "River of the Falls," a translation of the First Nations name for the site. (The city of Tumwater, founded in the same location, takes its name from another translation for "waterfall", this one in Chinook Jargon.)

It is famous for the brewery which was located there from 1896 until Prohibition. The Olympia Brewing Company bought the brewery after Prohibition ended in 1933. (Today it is owned by SABMiller, but is no longer operational.)

The river has numerous parks along it, including Pioneer Park and Tumwater Falls Park. A popular tubing stretch runs from Pioneer Park to Tumwater Falls.

A small tributary of the Deschutes River is Lake Lawrence, a 339-acre (1.37 km²) spring-fed residential and fishing lake approximately equidistant from the communities of Yelm to the northwest, and Rainier to the west.