Bend Whitewater Park - Packrafting OR - 1500cfs - Class II+

After realizing that Steelhead Falls was going to be a bit more of a mission than my wife and I had originally expected, we decided to stop at the Bend Whitewater Park to make our trip worthwhile. I have been to Cascade Whitewater Park on the Payette but this one definitely seemed more developed and had a lot more going on. I started on the smaller left channel and bounced my way down while surfing, ferrying and catching eddies the entire way. The left side is super friendly but in retrospect maybe a little too friendly. I walked back up and put in above the first rapid on the middle line with most of the flow. Before any river surfers out there try to give me crap about running the rapids top down consider this; Do you wear a helmet while riversurfing? Do you wear a proper PFD? Do you know better not to stand up in moving water as soon as you dump? Did you cut the leash off your board? If you answered no to any of these questions you are an absolute beater and do not belong in a river environment whatsoever. Not sure why river surfers think they are exempt from river safety protocol but in the entire time I was there (roughly one hour) I saw two helmets and one PFD amongst several river surfers. All it takes is a few accidents and a wonderful resource like this can be shut down, so lets recreate properly and safely (by the way, having all the proper gear makes you look like you actually know what you're doing and you look a lot cooler when all the tourists stop to take photos from the bridge). The first rapid in the middle doesn't have much of a surf wave and really just looks like a squirt spot for kayaks. Below this was the green wave that isn't really shaped for packraft surfing and is more fun to run straight on if you can catch a break between surfers. Typically downstream traffic has the right of way but in a whitewater park it is a bit different so try not to just drop in on people if you do this. The third drop was a bit more of a frothy wave but gave me a couple good short rides. The last drop is a lot more mellow but has a sticky little wave that seemed to dump me every time I really got into it. After swimming too far and ending up on the river right side of the park I walked back up and checked out the right channel, which was constructed as a riparian habitat closed to recreation. It really is impressive how natural and untouched this channel seemed, with plenty of native plants and tons of birds taking refuge in the landscape. After walking back up I was able to Lewis and Clark it upstream above the log booms and make my way down the middle channel again. After about an hour dinking around we packed up and headed back to camp, definitely show up here early if you don't want to be in a zoo of people.