Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor (also known as Redmond-Bend Juniper State Park, Redmond-Bend Juniper Wayside, or Juniper Wayside) is a collection of ten unimproved land parcels administered for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The parcels are located along U.S. Route 97 between Bend and Redmond, Oregon, United States. It is named for the large western juniper trees found on the parcels. The scenic corridor is completely undeveloped with no trails or park facilities of any kind.
Scenic Corridor
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for overseeing the Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor. The scenic corridor serves only as a buffer of native habitat along Route 97 between Bend and Redmond, giving the landscape along the highway corridor a natural high desert appearance. The department has no plans to develop any of the scenic corridor parcels.
The Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor is named for the large western junipers found in the area. Many of these juniper trees are several hundred years old. The scenic corridor is made up of ten separate parcels of land scattered along a section of U.S. Route 97, between Bend and Redmond in Central Oregon. Most of the parcels are less than . The parcels are bisected by the Route 97 forming a corridor with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department land on both side of the roadway as the highway passes through each parcel. The state scenic corridor covers a total of . Additional scenic corridor land along Route 97 between Bend and Redmond is owned by Deschutes County. Together, the state and county scenic corridor lands cover approximately .
The Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor is not a typical park. There are no facilities on any of the scenic corridor parcels. In addition, camping, hunting, motorcycles, and off-road vehicles are not allowed on any part of the scenic corridor. Hiking and nature viewing are the only activities permitted within the scenic corridor boundaries. However, the individual parcels are small and none of them have any developed trails to facilitate hiking.
Accessing some of the scenic corridor parcels can be difficult. Only one parcel has direct road access from U.S. Route 97. That access point is not marked so it can be hard to locate along the highway. None of the other sites have access from Route 97. Many of the parcels are bordered by private property with no road connecting the state land to a public thoroughfare, making access to the parcels problematic. In addition, there are no signs identifying any of the parcels as state land. Geological survey markers are the only way to identify these lands as state property.
Ecology
Old-growth juniper woodlands are generally defined as juniper groves where the majority of the trees have existed for at least 150 years in an undisturbed environment. That means the stands were present before the arrival of white settlers in the western United States. In addition to their scenic value, old-growth juniper woodlands provide critical wildlife habitat and help preserve the western junipers gene pool. Human activities have reduced the old-growth juniper woodlands in central Oregon. However, some of the old-growth stands are preserved in areas like the Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor. Many of the remaining stands are located on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, which is actively working to protect old-growth juniper groves throughout central Oregon.
The age and large size of central Oregon's old-growth junipers is likely due to the local weather conditions and deep pumice soil found in the area. The porous pumice soil allows the limited rainfall, an average of only per year, to be captured in the sub-surface water table where the junipers can draw on it throughout the year. A healthy and well distributed understory with a low proportion of young junipers, an abundance of native plant species, and relatively undisturbed ground are characteristic of old-growth juniper woodlands.
The wildlife found in the areas around the Redmond–Bend Juniper State Scenic Corridor sites are typical of central Oregon's high desert country. Among the animals found in and around the scenic corridor parcels are pronghorn, mule deer, coyotes, jackrabbits, ground squirrels, and chipmunks. Birds include warblers, woodpeckers, sage grouse, chukar partridges, and golden eagles.