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Locations

Nighthawk Naturalist School, LLC operates on public lands in the greater Bend, OR area. We have permits with local Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and Parks and Recreation sites. Sites for each program VARY and info about where your program is located can be found on your progam's webpage and/or registration link. If you do not see detailed information there, then detailed info has or will be emailed to you in the weeks before your program.

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Please see examples of some of our lovely program locations below!

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Alfalfa Market Road Camp

Also known as the Bend Airport Allotment, this site is owned by the Bureau of Land Management and Nighthawk operates here on a special use permit. We love this site and tend it regularly. It hosts beautiful old growth junipers, desert wildflowers in spring, and a shady, piney riparian area made by a canal in the summer. Programs that meet here for some meetings are : Youth Camps, our Immersions, Workshops and Homeschool Nature Days. It is just south of the Bend Airstrip

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Directions from Bend:

  • Travel east on Hwy 20/Greenwood

  • Turn left onto Powell Butte Highway

  • At the first roundabout (Powell Butte/Alfalfa Mkt Rd/Neff intersection), take the Alfalfa Market Rd exit

  • Our location is on the left hand side of Alfalfa Market Rd, about 0.5 miles east of the roundabout. It is marked by a cattle guard before the crest of a hill, so keep a close eye out for our Nighthawk sign upon approaching.

US Forest Service Lands

Nighthawk occasionally takes groups on excursions to Forest Service land locations, depending on yearly permit applications. Past sites have included Deschutes NF locations near Sisters and Ochoco NF locations at Lookout Mountain and a site nearby the Mill Creek Wilderness. Typically, these locations are only visited with Immersion groups or with teen Summer Camps via van transport.

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Tumalo State Park

For some Youth Summer Camp Outing Days and Homeschool Nature Days, we reserve Day Use Sites at this awesome State Park. We love its easy access to the river, respite from the desert heat, and the diversity of plants and birds here. When we are here, we are always on the Day Use side of the park, on the opposite side of O.B. Riley from the campground.

Bend Parks & Rec and Deschutes Public Library

Some Workshops, Homeschool Nature Day meetings, and some Immersion meetings are held at local parks and reserved Library Classrooms. We love Bend's public meeting spaces! Some parks we've visited with groups in the past are Shevlin, Farewell Bend, and Ponderosa Park.

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Other Locations and About

We aim to choose locations that are close to town, accessible to all vehicle types, close to water when possible, and have features and amenities needed for the program we're running that day. Not all activities are permitted by all land owners, so this is also a factor in our decisions. Permit processes also determine our decisions. We also balance all these needs with the desire to have programs in relatively wild spaces, where interference from crowds and the public are minimal to nonexistent. All program locations are subject to change due to weather, access, and safety reasons. Other locations we are grateful to be able to host programs on include our private land owning partners, Juniper Flats Outdoor Education Center, the Deschutes Land Trust, and Central Oregon Aerial Arts.

Thanks to all entities who host us and above all, we offer our gratitude to the land, which transcends time

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