Accommodations

The Rustlers Inn Motel (960 NW 3rd St., 541/447-4185, $45 and up) was designed in the Old West style. Art by local artists and antique furniture grace the rooms.

A budget motel that’s popular with anglers is Executive Inn (1050 NE 3rd St., 541/447-4152, $45 and up), east of downtown. The large multiroom family unit is recommended as a base for a family weekend visit to the Painted Hills, as motel accommodations in Mitchell are limited.

More upscale accommodations are available at the Best Western Prineville Inn (1475 NE 3rd St., 541/447-8080 or 877/744-7100, $85 and up), near the east end of town.

The Prineville Reservoir Resort (19600 SE Juniper Canyon Rd., 541/447-7468) is on the shoreline of Prineville Reservoir, 17 miles southeast of Prineville on the Paulina Highway (Rte. 27). This resort offers motel accommodations with kitchenettes ($75 and up d), camping units ($18 and up), and rustic cabins (no bedding, $35). The resort also rents fishing boats, paddleboats, and motors.

Central Oregon’s newest resort, Brasada Ranch (16986 Brasada Ranch Rd., Powell Butte, 800/989-3259, www.brasadalodging.com [1], $195 and up), lies in the open hills of the ranch country between Prineville [2] and Bend [3]. Brasada is the Spanish cowboy term for “brush country,” and that pretty much describes the landscape here, although it doesn’t include the beautiful views of Cascade peaks that you’ll find at Brasada Ranch.

This resort, built when cash was flowing freely in central Oregon [4], is an easy place to hunker down for a few days—the rooms are luxurious, but not frighteningly so; there’s a good fitness center and an outdoor pool that resembles those found in upscale Hawaiian resorts, an excellent restaurant, golf, biking, hiking, and horse trails. It’s also a convenient location for Crooked and Deschutes Rivers anglers who want to stay in an upscale resort.

Lodgings range from studios to three-bedroom cabins; they’re all lovely, and while the studios have just a fridge, a microwave, and a coffeemaker, all the other cabins have fully equipped kitchens.