THE DESCHUTES COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Pumice Plateau setting.
Deschutes County has 3,017.6 square miles of land in Oregon. 9 mapped landscape regions meet across Deschutes County: Pumice Plateau, Deschutes River Valley, Pluvial Lake Basins, among others.
On the Cascades' drier eastern side, open pine forests mingle with volcanic cones, buttes and basins. Larger river valleys and lake basins interrupt the surrounding uplands.
Regional context: Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Deschutes County intersects 9 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Pumice Plateau24.2%
- Deschutes River Valley16.6%
- Pluvial Lake Basins15.9%
- Ponderosa Pine/Bitterbrush Woodland15.6%
- Cascade Crest Montane Forest11.2%
Blue Mountains in Deschutes County
The Blue Mountains combine open mountain ranges and dissected volcanic uplands. The Wallowa and Elkhorn high country includes older granitic and metamorphic rocks above the surrounding lava landscape.
Read the regional source ↗Northern Basin and Range in Deschutes County
Lava plains, stony uplands, dry valleys and scattered ranges form the Northern Basin and Range. Sagebrush and grassland give way to juniper and other woodland in higher or rockier settings.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Deschutes County
The atlas lists 15 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Deschutes County, including Bend, Crooked River Ranch, Redmond. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Deschutes County by land and water
The Census records 36.6 square miles of water within Deschutes County, or 1.2% of its total area. That share is close to Deschutes County’s 1.2%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Deschutes County has 496.7 times the land area of nearby Deschutes River Woods CDP (6.08 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Crook County, Harney County, Jefferson County, Klamath County, Lake County, Lane County, Linn County within Oregon. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

