Drake Park and Mirror Pond

Mirror Pond is a small urban lake in downtown Bend, Oregon. It’s so cool, that Deschutes Brewery named an ale after it. No surprise, it’s their best selling beer.

This park is beautiful and close to downtown. During the warmer months you can find so many outdoor activities here– drum dancing, the local belegarth fighting group, yoga, and so much more! You can also check out the outdoor concerts too!
If you are lucky enough you can even see the otters!

Vey nice park to take a stroll while visiting Bend. The pond is very pretty — especially in the fall. Love the area and the surrounding neighborhood of the park.

Beautiful place for an after lunch/​dinner stroll. We went on the perfect fall day! I did take one star off for getting jostled by the very large exercise group. Proud of them for working out– just made it hard to enjoy the park.

Drake Park is absolutely dreamy! Bordering downtown, it meanders along the Deschutes River and the famous Mirror Pond (yes, Deschutes Brewery’s famous Mirror Pond beer is named after this idyllic spot.) The park is beautifully maintained, and is great for walking, running, biking, and the main spot for takeout after a leisurely float on the river. Festivals such as Subaru Games, Munch and Music and many others are here on weekends and evenings. This park is a must visit when in Bend.

Love this place, so clean and pretty. Not from Oregon but always love to visit this park when we are in town.

Love this park, minus the goose poop. Such a beautiful setting. Endless events happening at the park, always a good time. The Deschutes River runs along side the park, I love the Deschutes.
Clean and well maintained park. Parking can be a little dicey. Plenty of room to picnic, go for a nice walk, sit along the river and read, or pay frisbee.
It sits right along the bustling downtown area, so lots of options to make a day of it.

Such a beautiful park… a must see if in Bend.

A peaceful beautiful oasis. Great walking paths, large swaths of emerald green grass, lazy ducks and Canadian geese. It’s a great place for a picnic or to just sit and watch the river and people floating by.
I love that you can walk here from local businesses so you can take a mental break from people and shopping.
This park is a perfect example of why Bend is such a great place to vacation at

I wanted to get some steps in before our 8+ hour drive home, and my friend who lives in Bend highly recommended this park.
Located just a few blocks from our hotel (Double Tree, although listed as Phoenix Inn on Unilocal –
) and conveniently on the way to our lunch choice, (10 Barrel Brewing –
) this was a very peaceful and beautiful place to walk.
I highly recommend a visit to this park, in between brewery visits of course.

Came here to walk off dinner with the dogs. Not often do you get such a big, beautiful park within walking distance to downtown. Nice open area, gorgeous river and mountain views. Plenty of benches for sitting and taking in the view and people watching. Go too far down the path and you get a bunch of kids drinking beers.

I tried my first cigarette at a duck pond by my house when I was far too young to have done so. Peer pressure. It tasted absolutely awful. Although I did smoke for a few minutes there again in my early twenties, mistakenly thinking it was cool. I stopped when I got bronchitis, which turned into pneumonia. Oh, and when I remembered it tasted absolutely awful.
I blame that duck pond for that, and many future flawed decisions. But I digress.
Drake Park and Mirror Pond is not THAT duck pond. It is pretty glorious (despite the periodic duck droppings, what can you do?) has a paved path around the lake, is right off the main downtown drag in Bend. There are many great spots to go right nearby to eat and drink right after a beautiful walk though the park.
The homes around the park are simply lovely: old craftsmen, white picket fences, the whole nine yards and there is some nice shade here, necessary for a town like Bend that gets so warm in summer. A short, perfect summer stroll.
I even saw a drum circle and outdoor yoga taking place on the lawn at 8pm on a Saturday night. I’m pretty sure Drake Park and Mirror Pond is not responsible for any errant decision making, just good, clean living. (Except for that couple making out at the rocks. Wink, wink.)

Damn nice park you’ve got here, Bend. I was here for the 4^th of July. Lots and lots of grass. Massive old Poderosa pines. The notorious Mirror Pond. What’s not to love?

Loved this park. Lots of trees for shade or you can walk along the waters edge in the sun if you prefer. We saw a duck tangled in some fishing line and a park maintenance man was happy to help us get the duck unstuck so she wouldn’t drown. He was very kind and friendly. The parks is beautiful. And it seems to be a local favorite. We really enjoyed walking it with our dogs. It’s so close to downtown too!

I love Drake Park — community gathers easily… it could be improved after dark with the bad kids. In the daytime it is awesome and if I can’t walk it, it warms my heart to drive by it.

What a cute park!
Walked the dog here today, great weather for a stroll. I just love the homes nearby, there are some lucky residents in that area. Would have been nice if the path was a bit longer, there were also a few piles of dog droppings that were left behind by some owners…

One word: stunning
Parked our car nearby and was able to enjoy a brief stroll. Lucky residents.

Very nice in town park by the river. Geese, ducks and walking paths. Awesome old trees. Really adds to Bend’s character, I think.

This IS a very nice park. Gayle and I walked it the afternoon we arrived in Bend and the next morning before we headed North. In the meantime, I tipped a bottle of Deschutes Mirror Pond in its honour. The park is a welcome and peaceful sanctuary ying to the Downtown Business District yang. We particularly enjoyed the pond (or slow river) views, the happy kids running about, and walking a complete loop around including the gorgeous homes on the other side of the water.

This is a VERY nice park. The ducks are nice and clean. The walkways are mostly clean. Everyone respects this park and it shows.
I learned that Mirror Pond is not actually a pond, it’s just a slow part of the river– but it’s obviously very slow, the reflection looks like glass in some parts. I would LOVE to live on that residential side with those beautiful houses… urg.
After grabbing a pita for dinner, I would walk around and enjoy the park– it was GREAT. It would be very romantic to take a stroll in.
—now I’m blabbering…