Silver Falls OR the trail of 10 Falls.

On Sunday July 29^th, 2012 Laina and I headed to the Silver Falls State Park, it is located just east of Salem OR about 25 minutes.  This park is magnificent, it has 10 waterfalls all on one walking trail with a complete loop about 8.7 miles.  In our case we missed a trail and back tracked so we ended up walking 9.5 miles but every step of the journey was worth the hike.  We started the journey at South Falls, it is a 177 ft falls and very beautiful.

Before we started this hike I decided that I was going to track different things on the hike, one I will always take my picture at some point on the trail to show the progress of my weight loss and that I am going to try to start taking pictures of the details.  What I have noticed about myself on earlier hikes is that I say “oh look at that” or “that’s really cool” but I never take a picture of what I see, so starting with this blog, I will try to do both items…..so here we go on our journey and my first promise a picture of myself on the trail.

 

And as you can see that although it was late July when we started the hike it was cold out so I had my jacket on, that lasted for about 1.5 miles into the hike and the coat had to go.

 As for noticing the details we were barely into the hike and I found these pretty pink flowers, the picture did not come out too great but it was a good try…lol.

 Here is a side view of the South Falls and also showing the trail of which we were about to embark

 As we walk behind the falls the trail if fairly level and very maintained.  We knew this hike for the most part would not have very much height gain but would be give us a lot of distance.

 s we got the other side we continued around to a small bridge so that we could take pictures of the front of the falls from ground level.

As we head up the trail towards the rest of the falls we were hiking next to this creek that goes from one end of the part to the other.  As you can see there was a vast variety of trees, undergrowth and foliage giving us lots to looks at and admire.

 Many of the trees on the trail were covered in moss the following picture shows one of the example trees although it does not do justice to the beauty of nature.

As we continue down the path we continue deeper into the gorge, which was like a bowl effect,  we were walking along and had to go down a complete set of stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs we round the corner and we see Lower South Falls that is a 93 ft waterfall.

As we walk behind the falls the power and beauty of the falls made us stop and admire the in awe of the power.  This is a picture of the water hitting the rocks below.

 

This next picture is a view of the trail we had just walked down looking back through the water.

As we continue up the trail we come upon  a canopy type covering the trail, I tried to capture this in the following picture but I think you may need to use your imagination.

Lower North Falls about a 30 ft fall is next on our trip.

 As we head up the path we take an off shoot trail to Double Falls.  178 ft drop

Back out on the main trail we come up on Drake Falls 27 ft drop 

 Even farther up the trail we spot in the distance Middle North Falls with a drop of 106 ft.  I could not get a better close up shot but you can still see how beautiful it is

This little falls that was very hard to find due to a fallen tree is Twin Falls 31 ft drop

 

But luckily I had taken the picture before we got to marker on the path.

To keep with the spirit of noticing and picturing the details here is some fens and foliage along the trails – I am always in awe of how beautiful our area is and how many different plants and trees we have on our trail ways.  I have lived in the Pacific NW my entire life and although I noticed things I didn’t really “notice” them.  So at this point in my life I am ready to enjoy the details.

About 4 miles into our hike the clouds finally started to part and the blue sky started to show itself…if you know anything about the NW we have a lot of cloudy days even in the summer.

As we continue up the trail there was a bit of a break in the falls and so I took some pictures of the huge trees that had slid down the hillside.  This picture does not do justice to how large these trees really were.

Obviously this part of the trail is a little less travelled because it had a lot of foliage on the edges of the trail.

 

Soon we were back along the creek and out of all of the foliage.  I was soon intrigued by an interesting bird noise.  I couldn’t quite find it and it did not sound like a bird that I had heard before but as we continued up the path I spotted them in the water.  They were jumping off the rock and diving under the water and then popping back up again. 

 As we are approaching the far end of the loop we spy North Falls with a 136 ft drop coming through the trees.  I realize that this is well worth the hike around the whole park to see this from the trail level.

 

 

As we get closer the falls gets larger and more magnificent.  I am in awe at the beauty and shear power of the water hitting the rocks below.

Similar to the other side the trail winds its way behind the water fall in a cave like area that has been cut away by the power of the water.  The rocks have so many different colors.

 By this point in our hike we are about 5.5 miles into the hike and as we start the climb back out of the “bowl” type trail that we are on I started busting out laughing and said “really???”  I was getting quite tired and what do we come upon you guessed it …..Stairs.

At the top of the path we continue up past the parking lot and long a path that leads to last waterfall, but on our way we see Oregon Grapes and Berries of different sizes and colors.

Not far past the bride we find the last falls on our route, Upper North Falls with a 65 ft drop.

More berries…..

The last part of the hike is approx. a 3 mile hike through the woods along the road and bike path.  At one point on the trial we come upon 2 men trying to see this little creature and to take pictures of him.  None of us knew what this is but it looks like a large hamster of some sorts or a baby Nutria.  In any case it would scurry into its whole then come back up to the trail edge and eat, then back to its hole.  This went on for quite some time until these girls came up with their dog then he took off and didn’t come back.  He was really a cute little guy.

 As we continue on towards the car getting more tired as the hike goes on because we thought we had seen all the falls we see this really pretty orange flower, I believe it was the only one I had seen all day.  It has an interesting shape and color.

As we get to a parking lot close to the park where we had parked we realize that there was one more fall that had missed, Winter Falls it has a 134 ft drop.

 This picture shows how far down in the canyon we were at this point of the journey.

We then have to figure out which is the best way back to the car to continue down this trail or to back track from where we had just come from so we asked a couple of volunteers – they were shocked that we had walked all the way around the whole park…. I am not sure why they were so surprised we knew we could do it!!!   Thank you for going on this journey with me and I look forward to taking you on the next hike with me.