Silver Falls State Park

Today I hiked one of my favorite places in Oregon, Silver Falls State Park.  The Canyon Trail is a 10 mile loop with views of 10 waterfalls, with four you can actually walk behind.  Unfortunately, because of a landslide, I was only able to do the truncated hike of 5 miles, 6 waterfalls, but it was still beautiful and totally worth it. The drive to Silver Falls takes approx. 1 1/2 hours from Portland but is a beautiful drive with tons of scenery to check out. It passes through the quaint town of Mt. Angel (where Oktoberfest is held each year), Silverton, and miles and miles of agricultural land. I started the hike from South Falls (which is my favorite) and looped around Middle North Falls to Winter Falls and back.  The trail is extremely steep. The hiker has to descend more than 200 feet into the canyon, walk the trail following the river, and then ascend back to the top.  I would not recommend this hike for anyone with a disability, little children, or the exceptionally lazy.  The trails are well maintained but still can be treacherous so serious shoes are a must, and a good balance, and a good head for heights. For those not interested in hiking the entire way there is access to North falls, Winter Falls, and South Falls from parking lots.  I recommend everyone check this place out, it's absolutely stunning.  It's so beautiful it almost looked fake.

I had really great luck with the weather, it rained the entire drive down but cleared up as soon as I started walking.  I ended up having my first gaffe of this hiking extravaganza pretty soon into the hike when I sat on a log and got my pants all wet.  It was a little irritating because it seemed the right side of my butt was extremely cold the entire hike.  Well, after meeting up with some very nice old people and walking with them awhile the lady mentioned that it appeared my clothes were a little tattered.  I turned to look and it wasn't actually water that was keeping my butt cold, but a huge gaping hole that must have ripped through when I sat down.  So yes, I did this entire hike with my underwear hanging out.  I'm not even surprised.

The five mile loop took me 2 1/2 hours and was moderately hard, so be prepared!  Bring lots of water and snacks.  I took too many pictures to post here but I'll post some.  Tomorrow it's off to Champoeg State Park just south of Wilsonville.  Hopefully I'll make it through that one with all my clothes intact! Wish me luck...