Paulina Falls – Newberry Volcano National Monument, Bend, Oregon

Paulina Falls, located in the Newberry Volcano National Monument just outside of Bend, Oregon, is a beautiful waterfall. Because it’s a short hike (more like a scenic walk) to the waterfall, nearly everyone can enjoy visiting Paulina Falls. Here’s how you visit and hike to the Paulina Falls waterfall in Oregon.

Paulina Falls – Details

Location:
You’ll find the trailhead at the Paulina Falls Day Use Area inside of Newberry Volcano National Monument. he National Monument has two entrances, Lava Lands Visitor Center and the Newberry Caldera area /Paulina Visitor Center, both of which are off of busy Highway 97. To visit Paulina Falls, you will need to enter via the Paulina Visitor Center area. From Highway 97, it’s about a 12 mile drive down Paulina Lake Road to the entrance “fee” station, and then it’s 1 mile to the trailhead – it will take about 15-20 minutes to do this drive one way.

Admission: $5 per car. The “America the Beautiful” annual National Park pass is accepted here.

Trail Length: .5 miles round trip, out and back. Trail is dirt with some rocks and tree roots.

Parking: The parking lot at the trailhead has about 30 spots, and it’s busy. You shouldn’t have a problem finding a spot, as the trail is short so people are coming and going all the time.

Bathrooms: Available at the trailhead.

Dogs: Dogs are allowed on the trail

Time Commitment: About 20 minutes to visit both viewpoints.

Visiting Paulina Falls in the Newberry Volcano National Monument

Newberry Crater National Monument itself isn’t that well-known. There’s actually quite a bit to see at this National Monument – I’ve visited this National Monument twice and haven’t covered it all. If you’re headed to Crater Lake, Newberry Crater National Monument is only about an hour and a half away. I’ll write a more detailed post covering Newberry Volcanic National Monument soon, so for now, we’ll just focus on the waterfall.

As you can see from the trailhead sign in the photo earlier in this post, there’s two viewpoints for the Paulina Falls waterfall. We did both viewpoints. The “Falls Viewpoint” is paved, with guardrails, and gives you this view of the falls, requiring only a few steps of walking

Once you’ve finished enjoying this view, you can turn around and head back the way you came and take the lower falls viewpoint trail for a 1/4 mile. This is the better viewpoint, in my opinion, but it does require a short hike on a dirt trail with some rocks and tree roots, and can be a little steep for some (I hiked this in flip flops though and didn’t have an issue). I really wish I would’ve brought my tripod to take daytime long exposures, as this waterfall is made for it! We visited mid-day, so we had the harsh lighting.

We visited Paulina Falls in summer, but the area is open year round. Keep in mind that the Bend, Oregon area does get snow in winter, so you may want to bring microspikes if planning on visiting the lower falls viewpoint in winter. The Paulina Lake/Newberry Caldera area of the Newberry Volcano National Monument has other recreational opportunities – boating on Paulina Lake, plenty of other hikes, and you can even drive up to Paulina Peak on a narrow, unpaved road (definitely doing that the next time I’m here).

Paulina Falls in Oregon – Final Thoughts

Pros:
Very pretty waterfall requires only a short hike.
Not well known!

Cons:
If you’re in a hurry, and just passing through the area, the 12-mile detour off of Highway 97 might eat up too much of your time.