Creative Options for Reducing Parking, Traffic Welcome

If you recall last year’s snow-riding season, you might remember it as a time of icy roads and traffic headaches. During the pandemic, more people began to recreate in the area west of Bend. The pace continued long after the quarantine period ended. That’s good for people’s well-being, but it’s been not so great for parking and congestion. Mt. Bachelor and the various sno-parks have been packed — and perhaps nowhere is that more apparent that at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park. It’s the first sno-park drivers find when traveling from Bend along Century Drive, and because of its excellent trail network and the frequent grooming, it’s a popular place to be. Try to ski there on a Saturday morning, and there’s a good chance of having to park down the road instead of in the lot. On wintry days, that’s an annoying and downright dangerous prospect.

But similar to the shuttle that now goes to Mt. Bachelor and other sno-parks all year round, some creative thinking is giving Nordic skiers an easy way to skip parking and driving in snow altogether.

Starting this month, snow permitting, Meissner Nordic and Cog Wild will begin offering weekend shuttles specifically to Meissner, three times a day. Shuttle riders meet at a parking lot adjacent to the Bend Park and Recreation Park & Float lot — pay a nominal $5 fee and get dropped off right near the Meissner lodge. Easy.

This fall, the Oregon Department of Transportation told Oregonians that it would have enough funding to continue its winter maintenance schedule — meaning no skimping on plowing. But that was before a campaign to roll back newly created gas taxes and increased registration fees began to mount, and gathered what organizers believe are enough signatures to stop the taxes from being implemented at the start of the year. It’s not yet clear whether that will happen, but the uncertainty around that, and how it will affect the wintry roads, is one reason that having more options to get to the mountain is a good thing. Cutting down on traffic on a notoriously busy road is another.

The Meissner shuttle is low-cost because it’s being subsidized by Visit Bend, the Deschutes Trails Coalition and an anonymous donor, according to Cog Wild. Visit Bend’s funds come from tourism tax dollars, collected by people who stay in local hotels and vacation rentals. Those funds are intended to be used for tourism promotion and facilities — and we can’t think of anything that boosts tourism more than giving tourists a good experience in our mountains, free of parking and driving headaches.

Several years back, in the height of the pandemic business, a contributor to the Source dreamed the far-off dream of building a train to Mt. Bachelor. That feels like as much a pipe dream now as it did then — but now, at least we have a couple more good options.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the shuttle has not yet begun as of Dec. 9.

This article appears in the Source December 11, 2025.