Sisters: Cycling Routes, Culture and Starry Skies

Reasons to visit Sisters range from mountain biking trails and longer Scenic Bikeways to music, quilt art and starry skies. These different interests can help shape your trip when choosing a hotel in Sisters. You can compare route profiles, events and features of the town to find what suits you.

Mountain Biking Trail Network and Scenic Bikeways

The Peterson Ridge Trails are a mountain biking trail network with more than 20 miles of singletrack. The main trailhead is about half a mile south of downtown Sisters. One named route within the network is Peterson Ridge Overlook: It is about 10.6 miles long, designated as a mountain biking route, and rated intermediate. That distance describes this route, while the more than 20 miles refers to the singletrack trails in the network.

Two Scenic Bikeways offer other specific route profiles. The 38-mile McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway starts in Sisters, goes over McKenzie Pass and ends at Belknap Hot Springs. The route is rated extreme due to narrow or nonexistent shoulders and steep climbs. This rating is an important point of comparison if you are considering a longer bike ride as part of your trip.

The Sisters to Smith Rock Scenic Bikeway is 42 miles long and runs from downtown Sisters to Smith Rock State Park. The routes therefore differ both in length and destination: the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway ends at Belknap Hot Springs, while the Sisters to Smith Rock Scenic Bikeway ends at Smith Rock State Park. Together with the stated difficulty ratings for Peterson Ridge Overlook and the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway, these routes offer concrete guidance when choosing a bike ride.

Music, Rodeo and Quilt Art

Events also give a trip to Sisters different focal points. The Sisters Rodeo is a community-supported, family-friendly tradition. The Sisters Folk Festival is a multi-genre music festival held on seven stages in Sisters. If you are visiting for a particular festival or the rodeo, check the specific event dates in advance.

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show features more than 1,300 quilts by textile artists from around the world. During Quilt Week, the program also includes classes and workshops led by master quilt artists. The event therefore combines an exhibition of textile art with classes and workshops. If you are especially interested in quilt art, you can take this focus into account when planning your trip.

Sisters also has galleries featuring ceramics. Local art and crafts thus complement the larger music and quilt events. Together with the rodeo, they offer a range of cultural occasions that may be relevant when planning the timing of a trip.

Town Character, Visitor Information and Night Skies

Sisters has appealing 1880s-era facades and a small-town atmosphere. The townscape is another aspect of a visit, alongside the cycling routes and events. Visitors interested in the town’s history and design will find a different focus here than on the designated outdoor routes.

The Sisters Visitor Information Center is located downtown. It provides travel guides, magazines and brochures to help plan stays in Sisters and trips around Central Oregon. For information, you can consult materials about the town as well as those for a wider trip through Central Oregon.

Sisters is known for clear nights and low light pollution, which make it well suited to stargazing. This adds a nighttime perspective to a stay, while the facades, galleries and visitor information shape the town’s character during the day. When choosing a hotel, you can first consider whether cycling, an event date, art and the townscape, or stargazing will be the main focus of your trip.

Explore more destinations: Bend, La Pine, Deschutes River Woods.

Return to the regional travel overview: Deschutes.