Juniper Junction

The ice cream is very good here although it’s all Eberhard’s Ice Cream which you can buy in Central Oregon anywhere, including Safeway, Albertson’s, Fred Meyers or @ Eberhard’s Dairy in Redmond Oregon. It is not ‘homemade’. Want the Huckleberry ice cream? You can buy it @ Walmart. The guy serving is a bit eccentric and the whole place needs a good cleaning. On the day we were there, flies were buzzing everwhere. He didn’t seem to care or notice. His hands were dirty and he used a dirty scoop.
Not for me. Locals don’t eat here. Only the tourists who don’t know.

After a long day of hiking at Smith Rock, we were driving back to our campsite when we saw the ‘Huckleberry Ice Cream’ sign. We were like TURN THIS DAMN CAR AROUND AND GET SOME ICE CREAM NOW! I’m not exaggerating.
I’ve been here twice now — tiny little shop, decent ice cream! I actually liked the mountain blackberry a little more than the huckleberry. A couple bucks for a scoop ($ 2.15?) and it’s quite refreshing in the heat!

Yum! Huckleberry ice cream (in a cup). Better than Salt and Straw (PDX). It was a first! I can see it becoming tradition.

This place and their homemade huckleberry ice cream was on the must see list of things to do in the Bend/​Terrebonne area of Oregon, according to the Visit Central Oregon tourist magazine.
After a long hike through Smith Rock I can imagine a cold huckleberry ice cream cone would sound fantastic, and let me not sway you away from doing so. The ice cream was fabulous. It was smooth, rich in flavor and not too sweet.
I just had a issue with the storefront itself. The nice gentleman serving up the ice cream was working with store stock, stickers, shirts and other odds and ends when we ordered. His hands were visibly stained with the evidence of a hard days work. His shop, rather quirky and charming in its old world appearance, was disheveled and in need of a good old woman’s touch and some down and dirty cleaning.
So when this kind man grabbed an ice cream cone, ungloved, with not even so much as a napkin separating his hands from the cone nor washing his hands before handling food, I was grossed out. I really debated not eating the cone, but decided, what the hay, I haven’t died from germ exposure… yet.
It was good, but very simple, just a plain old sugar cone. No waffle cones. No chocolate dipped cones or waffle bowls or even the option of jimmy’s on top. Nope. none of that fancy stuff. Just good homemade ice cream.
After seeing the long line on previous visits, I expected a bit more pizzazz, but it is what it is. The fees were reasonable, so if they could just work on the whole cleanliness issue… yeah, that would be a good thing.