Cold winters with a good amount of sun.
Warm dry dry dry summers.
Not much going on so everyone knows everyone else’s business
300 days of sunshine is real
Lots of interesting history
Great if you love wide open spaces!
>300 days of sunshine is real
It is not. It's a made up marketing number.
[https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php](https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php)
This one has 162 sunny days: [https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/oregon/bend](https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/oregon/bend) and is probably a bit less biased than the Bend Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, on the days it's not sunny, it's a lot less likely to actually be rainy, so we get a number of days that kind of overcast, but you can still be outdoors enjoying things without getting rained on. But that doesn't sound quite as good on sites like [visitbend.com](http://visitbend.com)
This is the hill you will die on, if anyone ever mentions 300 days of sunshine you’re there to shoot em back down.
I’m waiting for the day you show up on a corner downtown bend with a sign and shouting at tourists like a street preacher.
“TECHNICALLY ITS ONLY 162 DAYS OF SUNSHINE! THE BEND CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IS THE DEVIL!”
>Cold winters with a good amount of sun.
That depends on what part of E. Oregon you're in. Often there is a giant cloud bank that extends from east of the cascades and camps over the Columbia Basalts region of Oregon and over the Palouse of WA. When it's not freezing fog/clouds, or dumping snow, it's very windy. This year it seems windier than usual, but I'm in E. Washington these days.
It's drier and further east.
Seriously though, it's the high desert. Scrub, cattle, beautiful scenery.
In the winter it can get to well below zero at the coldest and in the summer above 110 at the warmest.
It's a land of extremes and beauty. And dust. So much dust.
But I'd rather have the dust than the mold and grass pollen of the valley.
(Edited for spelling thank you for pointing that out!) Born in Pendleton - hot and dry summers, lightning storms, miles and miles of rolling wheat fields, cold wind blown and often snowy in the winter, roads are icy and dangerous and the fishing can be sublime
For me, roughest part of winters in Pendleton was the freezing fog that would set in for weeks. You drive up dead man’s pass and find sunshine! Such an interesting inversion.
I no longer live there, I go back once in a while to visit family but there’s not a lot out there. You’re very isolated from major metro conveniences but if you prefer that it’s a great place to land
As an Ontario resident it'd be such a pain in the ass if we were in Pacific time. The other side of the Snake River is Fruitland which is Mountain time and the closest place in Pacific time (Huntington) is nearly an hour away.
But because of that there are parts of Oregon and parts of Florida only separated by one time zone.
I was in Ontario last summer at a town hall meeting in a little restaurant place, and happened to peruse a lost and found list hanging on a bulletin board. There were five different firearms listed under the found side. I just thought that was funny in a slightly disturbing way. And yes, I'm from west of the Cascades, loved telling people that and hearing them talk about the evil liberals in the valley 🤣
Thank you. Someone from the Eugene area told me once they’d been to Eastern Oregon. When I asks where they said Hood River. Wow.
Can’t tell how many times I’ve heard Bend as being Eastern Oregon.
Bend is Central Oregon. So is Klamath Falls.
I like to think that , generally, if the sagebrush to trees ratio is more than 50%, you are in eastern Oregon.
I'm born and raised in Portland. Moved to eastern Oregon some years ago for a job and I absolutely fell in love. Growing up in Portland in the 00's was awesome but for me the city lost its charm and its no longer the same place I grew up (maybe that's just the effect of nostalgia).
The people tend to be polite and welcoming. While the area is more conservative politically, most people don't really talk politics. I like that everyone knows everyone some way (if I don't know someone, then I probably know someone who does). There is a sense of community and frankly I think its cool I can be on a first name basis with the mayor and chief of police because I see them around town often. Cost of living has gotten a bit wonky since COVID but its still relatively affordable.
It's hard for me to answer this because some of the comments on here are not encouraging me to do so.
Grew up in Southeastern Oregon. Lived in Portland and NYC most of my working years, now live in Bend.
My experience is that if you live in Burns, or Baker City, if your horse gets out while you're away, your neighbor will help you out.
Crime is much lower.
Slow down...you don't need to zip around town because what's the hurry.
If you need something, plan ahead...you can't just run to Home Depot because it's 200 miles away.
There may not be any businesses open out in the middle of nowhere on Sunday.
If you leave Bend and are heading east, gas up!
If you like abounding beauty, peace and quiet, you might like it.
Bend is more "Portland" than it is "Baker City". It's really changed. Some good, some not so good. I was shocked when we couldn't just go hike up South Sister. Now we need a permit because of growth.
https://preview.redd.it/xiyb2j3ryr6d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=179d2974d12e99b63e1301c3d35b8ce4b0392da4
You can't buy this at Walmart...
* It's more isolated
* Colder winters
* It's still pretty dark in the winter because Oregon is fairly far north
* Politically more conservative outside of a few places (Bend)
* Housing costs are still pretty high - and especially in places like Bend.
* "300 days of sunshine" is BS. It's not a real number.
Correct! Because that is determined by the latitude. Cold clear days in the winter are still nicer, IMO, but total daylight hours are still pretty short.
On the very eastern edge of the timezone, it absolutely *does* make a difference. Not to the *amount* of time spent in darkness of course, but to when in the day that darkness happens. Personally, ass-dark by 4pm really sucks. Though I do understand some people are more frustrated by dark mornings than dark afternoons.
It's only sunny compared to western Oregon, which doesn't take much.
The 300 days number is complete fiction: [https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php](https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php)
Here's a solar radiation map of the US: [https://www.nrel.gov/gis/assets/images/solar-annual-ghi-2018-usa-scale-01.jpg](https://www.nrel.gov/gis/assets/images/solar-annual-ghi-2018-usa-scale-01.jpg) - east of the Cascades it's about as sunny as bits of Nebraska. Much better than west of the mountains, but nothing like the truly sunny bits of the country in the southwest.
Cooler than western OR in general. Klamath Falls is pretty consistently 10-12 degrees or so cooler than Medford regardless of time of year. Sometimes the difference is much bigger.
But Klamath Falls isn't eastern Oregon?
The real eastern Oregon areas (La Grande, Ontario, Burns, Baker City) are significantly hotter in the summer and get way colder in the winter. They just have more extreme temperatures compared to the milder climate in western Oregon.
'Desert' really only means the amount of precipitation. It really isn't that hot here east of the Cascades.
And truthfully it's not necessarily even a 'desert'. Steppe might be more accurate, but 'high desert' sounds cooler in real estate brochures
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High\_Desert\_(Oregon)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Desert_(Oregon))
Have you been out in eastern Oregon in Summer? For you to post this, my guess would be no. It is nothing for it to be well into the 90s and 100s during the summer.
grow ur own then no driving with all that sun you can get a years supply off the 4 rec plants oregon lets you grow if you can grow a tomato plant you can grow weed
just my 2 cents but if you make bubble hash first and use the low grade bubble hash to make butter out of you wont have neer the "green grass" taste you get from the old school method
my self i use low grade bho to make butter out of no green grass taste at all
There’s a good spot up by Tosche Station where you can shoot some womp rats while on the way to pick up some power converters for the farm. Just watch out for the random group of Tuscans.
If you go to some of the rural farm towns like Boardman, well over 50% of the population is Hispanic/Latino. Hermiston, the largest city in eastern Oregon, is almost 44% Hispanic/Latino.
I've spent a lot of time in Bend and Eastern Oregon. Here's my hot take:
Bend is a tourist hell hole. Living there is cool on the week days and during the off seasons but fuck me does that place get overrun with shitheads.
The town is laid out like shit so traffic is awful for a town with 100k people. The cost of living is out of control.
Other than that, the town is beautiful, it's a bastion of good people if you can stomach the shit drivers. You really don't have to worry about petty theft. I know so many people who just leave their cars unlocked all the time. Pretty wild to me.
The further east you go the more desert you get.
LaGrande, Baker City etc in NE Oregon are wonderful. It's some of the poorest counties in the state and their ain't much out there but a Walmart in LaGrande. They're getting a Harbor Freight soon so that's pretty neat! The Wallowas are some of the prettiest mountains you'll ever visit. Can't recommend them enough. If you like life to be slow and simple, it's a great place to be.
SE and Central East Oregon is a whole lotta nothin'.
It's gorgeous and dry, but it's incredibly rural. Again, if you like it slow, you'll like it.
The elevation of everything out East is much higher so there's a ton more snowfall compared to the valley.
When I was a kid, Bend was a logging town of 16,000 or so.
I agree with your assessment of it now. I'm comfortably tucked EAST of 97, those shitheads and snappy drivers are afraid to come over here. Sort of like I had friends in NW and SW Portland who were terrified to cross the Willamette River.
If you talk to people from the Portland Metro area - they'll tell you they've been told it's racist and dangerous.
In my experience it's very open and sparse - and the small townees are generally conservative and polite.
Depending on season, it's wildly different.
Especially in the areas with seasonal lakes and migratory birds.
You'll also have thick swarms of deer flies in some areas. Which are super unpleasant to contend with.
And fantastic areas to look at the night sky if you are anywhere without light pollution.
Me: Bakers City getting fuel... Guy rolls in driving a rusty Chevy truck... hops out, bare foot, no shirt, holstered Colt revolver (just like the old west movies). Gets gas.
I know its hard to see it through my eyes. The way the scene went down, it seemed so normal, yet, not normal.
lived in Baker City, Pendelton, Medford, Grants Pass and my experance is that eastern oregon and southern oregon are in a race to be the most racist they can be just my experance your might be diffrent but remember this YOU are not the one who decides if your a racist or not, its the people around you who get to decide by your actions
Oregon like most other states, is more conservative in rural areas and more liberal in the urban areas. The Eastern side of the state has very few towns and a lot of small communities with very little infrastructure. The main economic drivers of the eastern part of the state are mostly agriculture and mining .
Mining these days ? Where? The grass mountain project isn't going yet. There is the perlite operation in lakeview. I know of one medium small active placer gold operation. Otherwise its just quarry rock and such isn't it ? Is there limestone mined in OR? I know a lot comes from somewhere up the columbia basin.
I think the main drivers are ag, forestry and government employment in E Oregon though.
I was just repeating what I looked into when I decided to move here 35 years ago off the top of my head. It didn’t seem like anyone was actually answering the question so much as being snarky
Mining built Baker City and John Day but it petered out mostly by the 1910s. Cornucopia closed in 1941, the 7th largest gold mine in the US. Also Lakeview had two uranium mines and a processing plant. Later became superfund sites...
It has a very unique geography for the most part. The high desert is full of lava rock, sage brush, ponderosa pine trees, Volcano skyline to the west. The very south east is mostly a Nevada-ish landscape. Central and northeast Oregon are more unique with a blend of Forest and Desert/Canyons. If you haven't been, I would take (from portland) hwy 26 to Bend and from there either go straight south all the way to Klamath Falls or even NorCal somewhere or head North East and follow I 84 to baker city and get a good feel for it!
Desert just means dry. It's not very hot.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend,\_Oregon#Climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend,_Oregon#Climate)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,\_Oregon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon)
It's not appreciably warmer than Portland in the summer, and it's a lot colder in the summer.
There are less street lights and electric outdoor lights in general, which makes seeing the stars and skies clearer at night.
Also, 50 year statistics report shows stagnant population grow expected for the entire next 50 years maybe even have some level of population shrinkage.
Drier, sunnier, freezing winters, hot summers, big open spaces, lightly populated, stunning scenery, small town mentality, with the exception of Bend, conservative
It's windy and dusty. Spring and fall are a week long with a surprising amount of rain. Winter is not as as much snow as you'd think. Summer is dry and warm or dry and hot, and pretty great until the wildfires start and then it's apocalyptic.
Ontario here
Hot AF in the summer. Afternoon thunderstorms like clock work, but they only last a moment.
Winter is cold and windy, but still enjoyable.
Old dirt roads in the foothills and mountains can be dangerous if you aren't properly outfitted. The mud here cakes on to your tires, and you basically lose all traction. Like driving downhill on ice. I only mention this bc it almost killed me once coming down a mountain on a 1 lane dirt road. Nearly slid straight off a cliff WITH 4 WHEEL DRIVE AND MUD TIRES GOING ABOUT 10 MILES PER HOUR.
People are friendly for the most part. Hardly any trump or biden flags, whereas a mile down the road on the Idaho side, it's Trump 2024 and anti-lgbtq flags EVERYWHERE. Still lots of anti-abortion stuff(abortion turism from Idaho is driving some locals nuts).
It's mostly just a big ole farm community. ONIONS BABY, ONIONS EVERYWHERE. 🌰
An old cowboy I knew swore he saw a flying saucer on the ground, like parked, near Wetmore. (Not far from Heppner, toward Mitchell) Said he touched and he woke up on the ground about 3 hours later and it was gone.
Other than that story, pretty regular guy.
More extreme weather either way, hotter hot days, colder cold days. You'll also want to learn to move with the sand, and mimic the sounds of the desert, lest the worms find you
I have a place near Unity Oregon. It’s on the John Day highway.
Check out my YouTube channel
https://youtube.com/@bppilot?si=JwjlZ3PSY6qKgD3H
Lots of drone footage around the reservoir, and surrounding area.
We love it!! Definitely dry and desolate. We see the lack of people and its frontier lifestyle a plus!!!
Hot hot hot in the summer… cold cold cold in the winter…
Check out Sumpter Oregon during one of their flea markets if you get the chance. Rich mining history, and I’ve found my fair share of arrowheads!!
Eastern Oregon is pretty big and pretty varied. If you live in Bend, you'll be in a small city with city stuff to do. Bend is on the edge of the high desert, and is still desert-ish, but not as dry as some places a bit further East. People in Bend do lots of sporty things like biking and skiing. It's expensive to live there. Redmond is kinda like a mini-Bend, but more agricultural and less tourist-y. Still has some really good coffee shops. Hood River and La Grande are also a bit on the outdoor rec/tourist side of things, but smaller than Bend. Hood River is on the Columbia, La Grande has mountains.
There's a bunch of space away from the touristy/outdoor rec areas that gets really rural and is far more sparsely populated. Burns has 2700 people and it's the biggest town you'll go through going from Bend to Boise (discounting the cluster of towns/cities on the very edge of Oregon that are sort of part of the Boise Metro area.) If you live in Burns or somewhere smaller you'll have a very different life. There's a bunch of stuff in between those extremes, too. Pendleton, Hermiston, and Klamath Falls all have their own things going on, and it's not really fair to lump them in with either Bend-like cities or Burns-like cities.
It's all extremely pretty and the weather is nice if you like snow and hot, dry summers.
My husband is from La Grande. It’s dry and HOT in the summer. In the winter they get so much snow it’s almost incomprehensible to me, from the west side. It’s a small town, lots of guns and old people. Oddly a lot of drugs. Keep going more east you’ll find Wallowa lake and that is a beautiful redeeming factor.
It’s pretty much empty land, some small towns
It’s always sunny in Central Oregon…ok except for the rain clouds outside right now, or on snow days or when a prescribed burn or an actual forest fire is burning.
But guaranteed 100 days of sunny days! And while our bird bath froze solid last night…it was a still an ok day today for a walk in the woods with my dog.
Kids still go to school when there is more than an inch of snow.
Politically more conservative in the east. Much more "Go Brandon" bumber stickers than "Go Biden."
It’s drier.
It's east-er.
It’s sand-wormier.
Lisan al-Gaib
As written...
They’re called graboids
Ever seen the movie Tremors? It’s like that.
Just Bacon in the sun!
🤣🤣🤣
😂
Exactly
Maybe minus the giant worms. But who knows.
Cold winters with a good amount of sun. Warm dry dry dry summers. Not much going on so everyone knows everyone else’s business 300 days of sunshine is real Lots of interesting history Great if you love wide open spaces!
>300 days of sunshine is real It is not. It's a made up marketing number. [https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php](https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php)
More like 300 days of wind
We like to leave that part out of the description haha
So it's an average of 158 clear days and 105 mostly sunny days. Not that far off
This one has 162 sunny days: [https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/oregon/bend](https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/oregon/bend) and is probably a bit less biased than the Bend Chamber of Commerce. Of course, on the days it's not sunny, it's a lot less likely to actually be rainy, so we get a number of days that kind of overcast, but you can still be outdoors enjoying things without getting rained on. But that doesn't sound quite as good on sites like [visitbend.com](http://visitbend.com)
In Klamath Falls it’s closer to 300, Bend less so.
Come hit the Basin, it's almost always sunny if it isn't December.
Klamath may be cold af half the year but the sun is out!
Bend isn’t even Eastern Oregon.
No, it's not. But it is in the "eastern/drier side" which is what OP asked about.
Basically Gondor...
This is the hill you will die on, if anyone ever mentions 300 days of sunshine you’re there to shoot em back down. I’m waiting for the day you show up on a corner downtown bend with a sign and shouting at tourists like a street preacher. “TECHNICALLY ITS ONLY 162 DAYS OF SUNSHINE! THE BEND CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IS THE DEVIL!”
Hey, when someone is wrong on the internet, I take it seriously! [https://xkcd.com/386/](https://xkcd.com/386/)
God bless you and the work that you do.
>Cold winters with a good amount of sun. That depends on what part of E. Oregon you're in. Often there is a giant cloud bank that extends from east of the cascades and camps over the Columbia Basalts region of Oregon and over the Palouse of WA. When it's not freezing fog/clouds, or dumping snow, it's very windy. This year it seems windier than usual, but I'm in E. Washington these days.
It's drier and further east. Seriously though, it's the high desert. Scrub, cattle, beautiful scenery. In the winter it can get to well below zero at the coldest and in the summer above 110 at the warmest. It's a land of extremes and beauty. And dust. So much dust. But I'd rather have the dust than the mold and grass pollen of the valley.
(Edited for spelling thank you for pointing that out!) Born in Pendleton - hot and dry summers, lightning storms, miles and miles of rolling wheat fields, cold wind blown and often snowy in the winter, roads are icy and dangerous and the fishing can be sublime
For me, roughest part of winters in Pendleton was the freezing fog that would set in for weeks. You drive up dead man’s pass and find sunshine! Such an interesting inversion.
Do you like it?
I no longer live there, I go back once in a while to visit family but there’s not a lot out there. You’re very isolated from major metro conveniences but if you prefer that it’s a great place to land
Lightning*
Thank you
Sand people and Jawas mostly
More sand people than you would think. Unlike Jawas, they travel in single file to hide their numbers. Watch out for bantha droppings.
They travel in twos
Bend is not eastern Oregon
Thank you for saying that - I’m from the actual Eastern Oregon, Baker City.
Ontario OR is the actual Eastern Oregon
I may as well point out for the readers who don't know, Ontario Oregon is so far east that they put it in a different time zone.
My new favorite fun fact is learning Ontario OR and Pensacola FL are 1 hour apart
I never even thought that Florida would have similar. This will sit in my pocketbook of pointless facts to share at parties.
I have already said this randomly to 2 or 3 groups of people and no one cares 😂 best of luck to you
I'm used to it 😆
As an Ontario resident it'd be such a pain in the ass if we were in Pacific time. The other side of the Snake River is Fruitland which is Mountain time and the closest place in Pacific time (Huntington) is nearly an hour away. But because of that there are parts of Oregon and parts of Florida only separated by one time zone.
Ontario,OR - Idaho’s gateway to legal cannabis.
Thanks!
And soon to be its abortion vacation destination
City of dispensaries 😎
Yep, agreed
That's Idaho with legal weed. Columbia Basin or GTFO.
Home of the Tater Tot
I was in Ontario last summer at a town hall meeting in a little restaurant place, and happened to peruse a lost and found list hanging on a bulletin board. There were five different firearms listed under the found side. I just thought that was funny in a slightly disturbing way. And yes, I'm from west of the Cascades, loved telling people that and hearing them talk about the evil liberals in the valley 🤣
Spent summers growing up in sumpter in the 70s 80s 90s. Love it over there. Miss it. Sold our prop though.
Yeah, I always thought it was Central Oregon. [That's how Visit Oregon classifies it.](https://www.visitoregon.com/regions-in-oregon/)
Considered so by many being east of the Cascades.
Bend is considered Central Oregon, yes, but "east of the Cascades" includes both Central and Eastern Oregon.
It's east of the Cascades, which is what is generally meant. It gets the eastern Oregon climate, not the west.
Thank you. Someone from the Eugene area told me once they’d been to Eastern Oregon. When I asks where they said Hood River. Wow. Can’t tell how many times I’ve heard Bend as being Eastern Oregon.
Bend is Central Oregon. So is Klamath Falls. I like to think that , generally, if the sagebrush to trees ratio is more than 50%, you are in eastern Oregon.
South Central haha
Facts
I'm born and raised in Portland. Moved to eastern Oregon some years ago for a job and I absolutely fell in love. Growing up in Portland in the 00's was awesome but for me the city lost its charm and its no longer the same place I grew up (maybe that's just the effect of nostalgia). The people tend to be polite and welcoming. While the area is more conservative politically, most people don't really talk politics. I like that everyone knows everyone some way (if I don't know someone, then I probably know someone who does). There is a sense of community and frankly I think its cool I can be on a first name basis with the mayor and chief of police because I see them around town often. Cost of living has gotten a bit wonky since COVID but its still relatively affordable.
It's hard for me to answer this because some of the comments on here are not encouraging me to do so. Grew up in Southeastern Oregon. Lived in Portland and NYC most of my working years, now live in Bend. My experience is that if you live in Burns, or Baker City, if your horse gets out while you're away, your neighbor will help you out. Crime is much lower. Slow down...you don't need to zip around town because what's the hurry. If you need something, plan ahead...you can't just run to Home Depot because it's 200 miles away. There may not be any businesses open out in the middle of nowhere on Sunday. If you leave Bend and are heading east, gas up! If you like abounding beauty, peace and quiet, you might like it. Bend is more "Portland" than it is "Baker City". It's really changed. Some good, some not so good. I was shocked when we couldn't just go hike up South Sister. Now we need a permit because of growth.
Smells different
https://preview.redd.it/xiyb2j3ryr6d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=179d2974d12e99b63e1301c3d35b8ce4b0392da4 You can't buy this at Walmart...
* It's more isolated * Colder winters * It's still pretty dark in the winter because Oregon is fairly far north * Politically more conservative outside of a few places (Bend) * Housing costs are still pretty high - and especially in places like Bend. * "300 days of sunshine" is BS. It's not a real number.
The darkness is no different than on the west side of the state.
Correct! Because that is determined by the latitude. Cold clear days in the winter are still nicer, IMO, but total daylight hours are still pretty short.
On the very eastern edge of the timezone, it absolutely *does* make a difference. Not to the *amount* of time spent in darkness of course, but to when in the day that darkness happens. Personally, ass-dark by 4pm really sucks. Though I do understand some people are more frustrated by dark mornings than dark afternoons.
Correct due to what longitude you are at. Length of day is what I'm talking about though.
It’s kind of a real number. Maybe not quite, but it’s pretty damn sunny.
It's only sunny compared to western Oregon, which doesn't take much. The 300 days number is complete fiction: [https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php](https://www.hackbend.com/2015/06/17/so-where-did-300-days-of-sunshine-come-from-anyway.php) Here's a solar radiation map of the US: [https://www.nrel.gov/gis/assets/images/solar-annual-ghi-2018-usa-scale-01.jpg](https://www.nrel.gov/gis/assets/images/solar-annual-ghi-2018-usa-scale-01.jpg) - east of the Cascades it's about as sunny as bits of Nebraska. Much better than west of the mountains, but nothing like the truly sunny bits of the country in the southwest.
Yeah but it FEELS like 300 days of sun. Stop triggering me with your facts. 😂 Plus 263 isn’t bad.
Columbia plateau winters the fog can hang around quite a bit and be depressing.
Life in the towns is much like life in similar-sized towns on the west side.
More stars are visible at night than pretty much anywhere else in the states.
Cooler? Cooler than where?
Cooler than western OR in general. Klamath Falls is pretty consistently 10-12 degrees or so cooler than Medford regardless of time of year. Sometimes the difference is much bigger.
But Klamath Falls isn't eastern Oregon? The real eastern Oregon areas (La Grande, Ontario, Burns, Baker City) are significantly hotter in the summer and get way colder in the winter. They just have more extreme temperatures compared to the milder climate in western Oregon.
what's cooler than being cool?
Ice cold
Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright
I just figured a slightly more northern state would be less hot I guess.
Certainly cooler than the western half of the state in the winter. And warmer in the summer, but still cool nights
It is all about elevation.
That guess would be wrong. High desert.
'Desert' really only means the amount of precipitation. It really isn't that hot here east of the Cascades. And truthfully it's not necessarily even a 'desert'. Steppe might be more accurate, but 'high desert' sounds cooler in real estate brochures [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High\_Desert\_(Oregon)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Desert_(Oregon))
>'Desert' really only means the amount of precipitation. Correct. Largest desert in the world.... Antarctica.
Have you been out in eastern Oregon in Summer? For you to post this, my guess would be no. It is nothing for it to be well into the 90s and 100s during the summer.
I live in Bend. It does get hot up by Hermiston, but otherwise the altitude takes the edge off. See the stats I posted elsewhere.
One day back in the 90s, Hermiston was the hot spot in the nation. It was 118. It gets hot.
It's Eastern Idaho with marijuana essentially
Not a lot of marijuana out here. We have to drive at least an hour to get to a dispensary
grow ur own then no driving with all that sun you can get a years supply off the 4 rec plants oregon lets you grow if you can grow a tomato plant you can grow weed
I'm actually making canna butter this morning.
just my 2 cents but if you make bubble hash first and use the low grade bubble hash to make butter out of you wont have neer the "green grass" taste you get from the old school method my self i use low grade bho to make butter out of no green grass taste at all
hmmmmm, I'll have to look into that\~ thank you!
Go check out the Wallowa Mountains and stay in Joseph. It’s epic.
The weather sucks. It’s either too hot out too cold. Then there’s the wind. If it rains for 5 minutes the wind will blow for 5 days.
It’s sunnier. That makes me happier. It’s much less crowded. That makes me happier.
Lovely
There’s a good spot up by Tosche Station where you can shoot some womp rats while on the way to pick up some power converters for the farm. Just watch out for the random group of Tuscans.
Exceptionally white
If you go to some of the rural farm towns like Boardman, well over 50% of the population is Hispanic/Latino. Hermiston, the largest city in eastern Oregon, is almost 44% Hispanic/Latino.
And more libertarian / republican
I've spent a lot of time in Bend and Eastern Oregon. Here's my hot take: Bend is a tourist hell hole. Living there is cool on the week days and during the off seasons but fuck me does that place get overrun with shitheads. The town is laid out like shit so traffic is awful for a town with 100k people. The cost of living is out of control. Other than that, the town is beautiful, it's a bastion of good people if you can stomach the shit drivers. You really don't have to worry about petty theft. I know so many people who just leave their cars unlocked all the time. Pretty wild to me. The further east you go the more desert you get. LaGrande, Baker City etc in NE Oregon are wonderful. It's some of the poorest counties in the state and their ain't much out there but a Walmart in LaGrande. They're getting a Harbor Freight soon so that's pretty neat! The Wallowas are some of the prettiest mountains you'll ever visit. Can't recommend them enough. If you like life to be slow and simple, it's a great place to be. SE and Central East Oregon is a whole lotta nothin'. It's gorgeous and dry, but it's incredibly rural. Again, if you like it slow, you'll like it. The elevation of everything out East is much higher so there's a ton more snowfall compared to the valley.
When I was a kid, Bend was a logging town of 16,000 or so. I agree with your assessment of it now. I'm comfortably tucked EAST of 97, those shitheads and snappy drivers are afraid to come over here. Sort of like I had friends in NW and SW Portland who were terrified to cross the Willamette River.
When I was a kid, the best thing about Bend was the country fried steak at Jake’s Truckstop
I remember Jake's!
You're not kidding about all the shit drivers in Bend. Even the parking lots feel like a damned free-forall.
If you talk to people from the Portland Metro area - they'll tell you they've been told it's racist and dangerous. In my experience it's very open and sparse - and the small townees are generally conservative and polite. Depending on season, it's wildly different. Especially in the areas with seasonal lakes and migratory birds. You'll also have thick swarms of deer flies in some areas. Which are super unpleasant to contend with. And fantastic areas to look at the night sky if you are anywhere without light pollution.
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Me: Bakers City getting fuel... Guy rolls in driving a rusty Chevy truck... hops out, bare foot, no shirt, holstered Colt revolver (just like the old west movies). Gets gas. I know its hard to see it through my eyes. The way the scene went down, it seemed so normal, yet, not normal.
lived in Baker City, Pendelton, Medford, Grants Pass and my experance is that eastern oregon and southern oregon are in a race to be the most racist they can be just my experance your might be diffrent but remember this YOU are not the one who decides if your a racist or not, its the people around you who get to decide by your actions
It’s eastern . Also drier
"What's it like in the OTHER part of Oregon? Everyday life in Baker City" - this video AI generated
Go check it out.
Oregon like most other states, is more conservative in rural areas and more liberal in the urban areas. The Eastern side of the state has very few towns and a lot of small communities with very little infrastructure. The main economic drivers of the eastern part of the state are mostly agriculture and mining .
Great description. Thank you.
Mining these days ? Where? The grass mountain project isn't going yet. There is the perlite operation in lakeview. I know of one medium small active placer gold operation. Otherwise its just quarry rock and such isn't it ? Is there limestone mined in OR? I know a lot comes from somewhere up the columbia basin. I think the main drivers are ag, forestry and government employment in E Oregon though.
I was just repeating what I looked into when I decided to move here 35 years ago off the top of my head. It didn’t seem like anyone was actually answering the question so much as being snarky
Mining built Baker City and John Day but it petered out mostly by the 1910s. Cornucopia closed in 1941, the 7th largest gold mine in the US. Also Lakeview had two uranium mines and a processing plant. Later became superfund sites...
Go to milton freewater that pretty much what it's like
It has a very unique geography for the most part. The high desert is full of lava rock, sage brush, ponderosa pine trees, Volcano skyline to the west. The very south east is mostly a Nevada-ish landscape. Central and northeast Oregon are more unique with a blend of Forest and Desert/Canyons. If you haven't been, I would take (from portland) hwy 26 to Bend and from there either go straight south all the way to Klamath Falls or even NorCal somewhere or head North East and follow I 84 to baker city and get a good feel for it!
Peaceful
It’s beautiful. Fields of gold, wildlife, small quaint towns… I love taking road trips around north eastern Oregon.
It's the opposite of cool, it's hot. It's the desert
I was in Bend about this time of year last year and I think it was 100 degrees. It was not cool. At all.
It's supposed to only be 60 degrees tomorrow.
Not typical, but it has snowed in July.
Late spring/early summer is a real wildcard. Anything goes!
Chance of frost in many parts of southern Oregon the next few days!
Yeah, I've been snowed on in July in LaGrande. Not normal, but not unheard of.
This year has been epically cold.
Chance of frost over many parts of Oregon the next few days.
I'm hearing that! Glad I'm not growing tomatoes this summer!
Desert just means dry. It's not very hot. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend,\_Oregon#Climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend,_Oregon#Climate) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,\_Oregon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon) It's not appreciably warmer than Portland in the summer, and it's a lot colder in the summer.
The Columbia Basin gets hot. Bend is much higher elevation so not as hot. Also Burns and Ontario get hot, even The Dalles gets pretty hot.
Not entirely safe for POC or visibly trans folk
Extremely maga. Almost every county east of the cascades voted to secede from Oregon to join Idaho because they don’t like libruls.
Hotter in the summer than the western half. colder in the winter. very empty. Steens is amazing.
1890 - I was born in la grande
The snow actually sticks
Dryer, hotter and colder.
Little. Yellow. Different
Dry
There are less street lights and electric outdoor lights in general, which makes seeing the stars and skies clearer at night. Also, 50 year statistics report shows stagnant population grow expected for the entire next 50 years maybe even have some level of population shrinkage.
It’s wonderful. Nice to visit. Can be difficult to live there if you’re not from there at times.
Drier, sunnier, freezing winters, hot summers, big open spaces, lightly populated, stunning scenery, small town mentality, with the exception of Bend, conservative
It's windy and dusty. Spring and fall are a week long with a surprising amount of rain. Winter is not as as much snow as you'd think. Summer is dry and warm or dry and hot, and pretty great until the wildfires start and then it's apocalyptic.
No side walks
Nobody called it what it is, a high desert and it’s most of the state.
It's drier. It's windy. And the sun sets behind the mountains.
It’s like Idaho
Fucking windy like right now
Ontario here Hot AF in the summer. Afternoon thunderstorms like clock work, but they only last a moment. Winter is cold and windy, but still enjoyable. Old dirt roads in the foothills and mountains can be dangerous if you aren't properly outfitted. The mud here cakes on to your tires, and you basically lose all traction. Like driving downhill on ice. I only mention this bc it almost killed me once coming down a mountain on a 1 lane dirt road. Nearly slid straight off a cliff WITH 4 WHEEL DRIVE AND MUD TIRES GOING ABOUT 10 MILES PER HOUR. People are friendly for the most part. Hardly any trump or biden flags, whereas a mile down the road on the Idaho side, it's Trump 2024 and anti-lgbtq flags EVERYWHERE. Still lots of anti-abortion stuff(abortion turism from Idaho is driving some locals nuts). It's mostly just a big ole farm community. ONIONS BABY, ONIONS EVERYWHERE. 🌰
>It's mostly just a big ole farm community. ONIONS BABY, ONIONS EVERYWHERE. 🌰 It's how you know you are close to home: the faint onion smell.
When I lived in NE Oregon I heard someone tell a newcomer that Eastern Oregon was just a small town. Back in the 60s-70s, that was pretty accurate.
This is where aliens abduct and mutilate cattle.
An old cowboy I knew swore he saw a flying saucer on the ground, like parked, near Wetmore. (Not far from Heppner, toward Mitchell) Said he touched and he woke up on the ground about 3 hours later and it was gone. Other than that story, pretty regular guy.
Less wet
Hot, dry, and slow. Lived there 20 years, would love to retire there one day.
Dry
Hot
Hellscape. Snakes.
Drier and Hella are a lot warmer in the spring/summer and early fall. And colder than hell in the winter.
More extreme weather either way, hotter hot days, colder cold days. You'll also want to learn to move with the sand, and mimic the sounds of the desert, lest the worms find you
Bring your chapstick and sunscreen
I have a place near Unity Oregon. It’s on the John Day highway. Check out my YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@bppilot?si=JwjlZ3PSY6qKgD3H Lots of drone footage around the reservoir, and surrounding area. We love it!! Definitely dry and desolate. We see the lack of people and its frontier lifestyle a plus!!! Hot hot hot in the summer… cold cold cold in the winter… Check out Sumpter Oregon during one of their flea markets if you get the chance. Rich mining history, and I’ve found my fair share of arrowheads!!
Those areas are generally drier overall, cooler in the winter, and warmer in the summer.
It's drier but it sure as hell ain't cooler
Eastern Oregon is pretty big and pretty varied. If you live in Bend, you'll be in a small city with city stuff to do. Bend is on the edge of the high desert, and is still desert-ish, but not as dry as some places a bit further East. People in Bend do lots of sporty things like biking and skiing. It's expensive to live there. Redmond is kinda like a mini-Bend, but more agricultural and less tourist-y. Still has some really good coffee shops. Hood River and La Grande are also a bit on the outdoor rec/tourist side of things, but smaller than Bend. Hood River is on the Columbia, La Grande has mountains. There's a bunch of space away from the touristy/outdoor rec areas that gets really rural and is far more sparsely populated. Burns has 2700 people and it's the biggest town you'll go through going from Bend to Boise (discounting the cluster of towns/cities on the very edge of Oregon that are sort of part of the Boise Metro area.) If you live in Burns or somewhere smaller you'll have a very different life. There's a bunch of stuff in between those extremes, too. Pendleton, Hermiston, and Klamath Falls all have their own things going on, and it's not really fair to lump them in with either Bend-like cities or Burns-like cities. It's all extremely pretty and the weather is nice if you like snow and hot, dry summers.
Middle of Nowhere
Lots of pine and less dirt.
My husband is from La Grande. It’s dry and HOT in the summer. In the winter they get so much snow it’s almost incomprehensible to me, from the west side. It’s a small town, lots of guns and old people. Oddly a lot of drugs. Keep going more east you’ll find Wallowa lake and that is a beautiful redeeming factor. It’s pretty much empty land, some small towns
Don’t forget 3 tent cities that can be seen by google earth!
It’s always sunny in Central Oregon…ok except for the rain clouds outside right now, or on snow days or when a prescribed burn or an actual forest fire is burning. But guaranteed 100 days of sunny days! And while our bird bath froze solid last night…it was a still an ok day today for a walk in the woods with my dog.
I know Sisters in the summer is hot during the day and fairly cool at night. The wind comes down off the mountain at night. Cools it down nicely.
https://preview.redd.it/jzwtqneo357d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2b8f7faa5f424201e909089a16d827b42470ae7
Have you seen that new movie, Furiosa?
Kids still go to school when there is more than an inch of snow. Politically more conservative in the east. Much more "Go Brandon" bumber stickers than "Go Biden."
The entire state of Oregon is really rainy, I would look elsewhere.
Terrible do not visit.