Sitting at the Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint, 4-year-old Sierra Hammon pondered how many visitors come to the state park every year. She thought long and hard as her parents encouraged her to come up with the biggest number she could think of.

“Hmmmm,” Sierra said solemnly. “I think one … and five!”

Add several zeros and Sierra’s guess isn’t that far off.

In 2023, 1,199,756 people visited Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint, making it the most popular state park in Central Oregon and outpacing Smith Rock State Park by more than 350,000 visitors.

Pilot Butte is an extinct cinder cone volcano that sits in the center of Bend.

It’s one of the few volcanoes in the United States that sits within city limits and is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike.

Visitors can access the butte year-round, and at the top, there is a view of Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, Black Butte, Mount Hood and even Smith Rock. There are three hiking trails and a road is open to vehicles seasonally from April through November.

Still, there are residents who have never been to the top, prompting the question: How can a state park in a city of 102,000 people reach a million visitors annually?

A hike for everyone … again and again

Sierra shouldn’t be blamed for underestimating how many people visit Pilot Butte, state park manager Joseph Wanamaker said, because the Pilot Butte’s popularity largely stems from repeat visitors.

“It can be a little deceiving,” Wanamaker said. “We call it Bend’s stair master. It’s a mile hike and a 500-foot elevation gain. It’s a nice little workout for people and because of that we have people doing it five or six times a day.”

Every single repeat trek adds another tally to the total collected through the state park’s trail cameras. The same goes for vehicles that drive to the top, which are multiplied by a factor of 2.6 to account for varying numbers of passengers.

So really, the state park’s visitation numbers aren’t a reflection of the number of unique visitors to Pilot Butte, but rather the fervor of Bend’s infatuation with it.

Sierra and her family are the perfect example.

The Hammons have been coming to Pilot Butte regularly for years. It’s the first place they take visiting family and friends, and it’s a great place to foster a love of hiking for their children while still getting them home in time for dinner, said Sierra’s father, Jason Hammon.

“I think for me, the word I would use is easily accessible,” said Sierra’s mother Crystal Hammon. “It doesn’t matter what time of day. It’s a short hike. You can make it as hard as you want … When (Sierra) was younger we would take the dirt trail and we would encourage her by saying we just need to make it to the next bench. Now she can hike it without complaining.”

On any given day, there are groups who will take laps up and down the butte. Cyclists will take the paved road up to the top and trail runners pause their stopwatches to take a look at the view. Even those who come less frequently, like Scott Clifford, who was visiting the scenic viewpoint with his golden retriever Jackson, are reminded of the beauty once they reach the top.

“It’s the best view of Bend. It’ll give you a different perspective on where you live, especially on a day like this when we get that 360-degree view. If you’ve forgotten how awesome of a place we live in, this will certainly remind you,” said Clifford.

The challenges of popularity

Last year’s visitation number wasn’t the highest ever recorded. That was in 2016, when the trail cameras counted 1,253,804 visits. But Wanamaker said he expects visitation will continue to increase as Bend becomes more popular.

But with popularity comes challenges.

Off-trail hikers, off-leash dogs and graffiti in the bathrooms are all obstacles Wanamaker has had to face because of Pilot Butte’s popularity. Not to mention the cost of maintaining the road and pavers that deteriorate over time.

“I would say we are getting very close to capacity. On busy days for the day use at Tumalo State Park, the parking lot will be completely full,” Wanamaker said. “At Pilot Butte, I don’t think that we will get to that point … but there’s definitely more people than there were. If everyone stays on the trails, the trails can hold more capacity.”

Wanamaker urges visitors to follow the state-park rules, stay on the designated trails and do their part to keep the fragile landscape of Pilot Butte’s cinder cone from degrading.

“It’s kind of a special place,” Wanamaker said. “People like just being out there even though technically this isn’t in the wilderness. But it kind of feels that way. It’s a place to just get away and a place to unwind … state parks tend to be in really unique or beautiful places like that.”