A revamp of Bend’s river wave, tubing and fish passage channel and nearby water access is moving ahead in the early stages of planning, but it may still be years before construction begins.
The project will mark the most significant changes to the Bend Whitewater Park since it was built in 2015 and upgraded the following two winters. The Bend Park and Recreation District is aiming to address lingering issues with safety, bank erosion, channel scour and controllable gates that shape water flow.
The project could also include rebuilding parts of the park to make recreation better for tubers, surfers and other boaters.
Ian Isaacson, landscape architect with the park district, told the Source he will give an update on the project for the district’s board of directors on July 21. The district hasn’t decided on exactly what changes it plans to make.
Isaacson said he plans to put together a timeline for the project in the next couple of weeks. Recently, staff and consultants have been in talks with various regulatory agencies that will be involved with the project, which will be more complicated than a typical construction project because of the Deschutes River.
“We’re in the very, very beginning stages of developing some conceptual designs,” Isaacson said. “That’s where the project is at right now.”
The total funding for the project is $15.3 million.
Last summer, staff presented findings of a study with a host of recommendations for upgrades at the park. At a minimum, those included filling in scour holes, removing hazardous boulders, fixing foot entrapment hazards, reconstructing walls of the surf wave and parts of the island between channels to address erosion.
The study, produced by consultant Recreation Engineering and Planning, also said the fish passage channel — a series of small drops and pools popular with tubers in the summer — should be reconstructed and widened, while an upstream takeout near the Colorado Avenue bridge should be upgraded and an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant path constructed along the bank.
To build only the minimum recommendations would cost between $5 million to $9 million, while going beyond the minimum would cost up to $12 million.
If the district chooses to make further upgrades, it could also rebuild two of the whitewater waves to make them better for kayakers and other boaters, rebuild the tubing channel for a wider variety of drops and widen the island median.
According to Isaacson, the new whitewater park design will need to account for a future where river flows are expected to be more consistent year-round. A new conservation plan drafted by the state aims to provide more water for fish and frogs, which will mean more water released from Wickiup Reservoir upstream during the winter. That will require reshaping banks and gates to accommodate higher cold-season flows, according to Isaacson. The flows are expected to change by 2029 or 2030.
The project also includes access and landscape upgrades at McKay Park, which abuts the river just below the whitewater channels.
It will likely match the aesthetic of the project the park district completed in 2025 at Miller’s Landing across the river, with new boulders, concrete structures, paths and stairs. It’s part of a series of river access and restoration projects the park district is undertaking, with another planned project at Columbia Park expected to begin construction later this year just downstream. The park district also expects to replace the wooden footbridge spanning the Deschutes next to the park.
This article appears in the Source July 2, 2026.
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