Prive Spotlight
Enchanted Forest
Wellness meets Luxury at Juniper Preserve
By Joe Passov
Nestled into the world’s second largest juniper forest, Bend, Oregon’s Juniper Preserve is all about relaxation — and rejuvenation. “People come to Juniper Preserve to disconnect and discover,” says Mickell Smith, the property’s director of sales and marketing. “We take care of the distinctive touches and details throughout the hotel that provide a four-star experience, but virtually everything we do is designed to connect you with nature and wellness.”
Founded in 2003 as the Pronghorn Club, an upscale residential community, Juniper Preserve underwent a rebranding — and a spiritual rebirth — in 2022, taking its present name. Always a magnet for active lifestyle residents, with a deep menu of four-season fun, Juniper Preserve elevated its status as a resort destination when it opened the 104-room Juniper Lodge in 2019. Three years later, concurrent to the name change, Juniper Preserve embraced a new path. Real estate buyers and vacationers were looking for a lifestyle and visits that actually improved their health.
“During the COVID and post-pandemic period of 2020 and 2021, people flocked to central Oregon to get out of the cities,” said Spencer Schaub, general manager at Juniper Preserve. “People were searching for a sanctuary. They were putting more value into health and wellness decisions. Golf would still be the hero here, but we saw that it was the right time to grow the resort aspect under this health and wellness vision.”
The transformation has given rise to enhanced feel-good activities and amenities that range from the expected — spa treatments, from massage to sauna to body wraps to facials — to the unexpected, such as a Transcendental Breathwork series, concerts in an ancient lava cave, and something called a sound bath. Aptly named, one is bathed in the soothing sounds and vibrations of bells, bowls, chimes, and a gong. Whether you partake in the pool, in the forest, or in a tipi, as I did, prepare to be transported.
HEROIC GOLF
For all the recent emphasis on the modality of health at Juniper Preserve, the star attraction — the hero of the place, as Schaub calls it — remains the golf. Its longstanding reputation and rankings were so strong that management retained the existing name, Pronghorn Club.
Jack Nicklaus designed Pronghorn’s resort course, while the predominantly members’ layout is a Tom Fazio creation. Both are true championship-level tests, but with five sets of tees, plus combo tees, they offer sufficient flexibility for every class of player to enjoy the round. Golf Digest’s course ranking panelists laud all 36 holes, placing both courses as the two finest in central Oregon and among the top eight in the state.
The Fazio is distinguished by wider fairways than the Nicklaus, with fescue-fringed bunkers. Several west-facing holes, including the par-3 11th yield views of the snow-capped Three Sisters, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor. Most memorable is the par-3 eighth hole that plunges downhill over a 45-foot-deep canyon, its green backstopped by volcanic rock and bracketed on either side by lava tubes — caves that you can actually walk into.
Choose the correct tees and Jack’s track is pure fun, with gobs of eye-candy. The lake-guarded, par-4 13th wows with a rock ledge and waterfall behind the green, but the true showstopper is the par-5 15th, which snakes its way uphill with a fairway path resembling a slalom run between the junipers, bunkers, and lava rock outcrops. With two of the Three Sisters in the backdrop at the 15th and at the par 3 that precedes it, the challenge and beauty merge in spectacular fashion.
An outstanding practice facility, capped by the Fazio Short Game Area, is further enhanced by the on-site Pronghorn Golf Academy, headed by Oregon’s top-ranked instructor, Jeff Ritter.
EVOLUTION
Juniper Preserve shows no signs of resting on its laurels. Currently more than 20 homes are being built on property. As buyers are getting younger, more homes have gone up in the past four years than in the previous 10.
Another notable transformation for 2024 centers on the third floor of the Lodge, which has been recently renovated into unique new units.
During the revamp, rugs and hardwood floors replaced carpet, kitchens and dining spaces were enlarged, and a club lounge was added for third-floor guests. A one-bedroom studio unit starts at $299,000, with two-bedroom suites up to $1 million. Soon to be released will be four two-bedroom penthouse suites — the very top of the line.
Also evolving at Juniper Preserve is the dining component … evolving into the stratosphere. Following a clubhouse fire in April 2023, the fine dining experience at Cascada went on permanent hiatus. Juniper Preserve’s world-renowned Food & Beverage Director Jason Ray saw this void as an opportunity. He, head chef Ryan Eisert, and their talented colleagues spawned a pop-up restaurant called KÉYA, which featured innovative, inspired seasonal offerings via a global ancestral tasting menu, such as Camel butter with Naan bread and New Zealand elk tenderloin.
Schaub calls the global ancestral concept, “clean eating,” meaning there is a minimum of additives and preservatives. Soon, KÉYA will be replaced by a permanent fine dining restaurant designed by industry legend Samantha Goodrich. Clearly, this will not be just another golf club culinary offering.
“If you’re going to bring people in for a multi-sensory experience, you’d better make it new,” said Ray. “I want people who have been to Paris and New York and China and Somalia, wherever you’ve gone to try food, to come in here and be like, ‘Wow — I’ve never seen that before!’”
Bold, new, healthy, luxury experiences without the white tablecloth formality — that’s Juniper Preserve in a nutshell.
Juniper Preserve
Bend, Oregon
(866) 320-5024
www.JuniperPreserve.com
