Jun 11, 2012 - Day Trip: Silver Falls SP, OR

It is a beautiful, sunny day. We are not on the coast. We travel east to a Wal-Mart. We travel north to Silver Falls State Park. The roads are good. There is a lot of twisting and turning, as we get close to the park. We find the parking lot for “day use”. We are disappointed that there is no Visitor Center. We find a nature store. Here we get a map and information. The South Falls are the falls that are pictured in the advertisements for this state park. A short walk from the parking lot takes us to the top of South Falls. They are the...

May 14, 2012 - Next stop, Oregon

After a beautiful drive through Oregon's mountains and passes (One of which we spent the night on), we arrived at out next destination, Silver Falls, Oregon. What a magical place! The trees are so big, the area so green, and the falls were spectacular!

Jul 20, 2010 - Last day at Silverton. Oregon

About five miles from Silverton is a city called Mt. Angel... It is a little German town that has a glockenspiel at the restaurant/pub right in the middle of town.. Of course we had to go there and see it.... The morning was cloudy and cool and that might be why we didn't see a lot of tourists... At least I hope that was the reason.. We arrived just in time to see the 11:00am show on the glockenspiel... It was quite different that any we have seen before but quite enjoyable.. I guess we are really spoiled after spending so much time in...

Jul 19, 2010 - Silver Falls State Falls

The day started out beautiful right from sunrise… Usually we have a lot of low clouds until about noon and it is a little cool… I sure am not complaining though… I don’t mind having a sweater over my shoulders for a short time… As soon as the sun clears, it gets nice and warm even if the temps don’t get over 70 degrees… Today was one of the cooler days where we did not see it hit 70 until after we got back to our campground this evening… In spite of the cool temps, I was dripping wet after the hike we took this time.. We got our picnic...

Oct 24, 2009 - Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

Today we decided to head to Oregon's most popular state park, Silver Falls. It is nestled in the lower elevation of Oregon's Cascade Mountains and lies a temperate rain forest. We were really happy that we decided to drive the 75 miles to get here. It was well worth it. The park has 10 majestic waterfalls ranging from the South Falls at 177' to the delicate Drake Falls that is only 27'. We didn't get to walk all the trails because of time considerations but would love to return and walk the whole trail. The paths we did travel were just...

Aug 5, 2009 - Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park is home to ten waterfalls, five of which are more than 100 feet high. There is an 8 mile trail that leads through mossy caverns behind some of the falls, and along Silver Creek itself. It is the largest park in Oregon, and one of the largest in the US. The park began as a town, back in the 1800's, called Silver Falls City. One of the surveyors platting the City was later to become President of the US-- Herbert Hoover. Another interesting fact is that one of the loggers working here in the 1930's was none other than...

Jul 10, 2009 - Silver Falls State Park

We were up and out early this morning for a day of hiking. Our destination was Silver Falls State Park about 25 miles east of Salem. The drive was as beautiful as the hike. Once we got on highway 22, about 5 miles from our campground, we were in rural Oregon. Like on our drive to Salem, today we passed beautiful rolling farmland. We didn’t see much cattle today, but there were hundreds of acres of hay interspersed with tree farms. The whole area was just gorgeous. Silver Falls State Park is a real jewel for the state of Oregon. There are...

May 6, 2009 - Salem, OR - Silver Falls State Park

The trip from Myrtle Creek to Salem was again through some wonderful hillside scenery. You would have thought we were in Ireland with all of the shades of green. We arrived here at Silver Falls State Park a little after noon and got settled in pretty quick. I was able to find the satellite around the trees but we have absolutely no cell service whatsoever. The closest reliable coverage is about 12 miles away. This portion of the blog will be written real time but will have to wait for posting until Thursday when we get better reception. The...

Oct 16, 2006 - Silverton Oregon

This was a slow week for site-seeing; the only real point of interest was Silver Falls State Park. Silverton is a small town (8,000 population) just east of Salem. The downtown area is very nice with lots of murals and small shops. We also fell in love with several houses which were nicely restored. Silver Falls is the largest state park in Oregon and has ten waterfalls on a 8.7 mile trail. We only hiked in to a few of them because we're in the middle of the dry season so the flows weren't very good. I can only imagine how beautiful the...

Mar 28, 2006 - Silver Falls State Park, OR

Stopped here on the recommendation of my brother Nathan, who is an Oregon afficianado. He was right, this is a very special place. However, since we were dragging our own personal weather system with us this year, it was pretty wet. Strongly recommend a visit here if you can find the opportunity. It did clear up enough for us to try one of the trails along the river and see some of the falls. There are waterfalls everywhere - you get unexpected views through the trees of big ones in the distance. Made me wish I was a better...

Jul 19, 2005 - Hoo Doos

After stocking up on $100 worth of groceries and $96 worth of gas, we started to leave Florence today uncertain if we would go north along the coast or east to Bend and beyond. But the Bounder bounded east and we followed along Route 126 over the coastal range, through Eugene and up the heavily forested Cascades. It is a beautiful drive following many rivers. About 4:30, after driving along the rushing Mackenzie River, we drove off the highway to see the Hoo Doo ski area. We found a National Forest Service campground on Big Lake. It was a...