The Deschutes River winds like a great blue-green snake through a dry rimrock canyon bordering the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.  In 1910, when two rival railroad tycoons were racing to build competing lines from The Dalles to Bend, locomotives steamed along the riverbank.  Now this portion of the old train route has been converted to a path where you can watch the glassy river glide past.

Both ends of the 7.6-mile river trail ae at campgrounds that serve as popular launch sites for whitewater boaters.  If you have a shuttle car, you can walk the entire trail one-way.  Of you don't have a shuttle, . . .

This chapter is an excerpt from 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon