Silver Falls (waterfall insanity)

Hello everyone!

I had a really great weekend with Gina at Silver Falls State Park. We left Friday right after work and found ourselves in a slow mob of traffic on a rainy night. We stopped in the town of Silverton where we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and stopped in a shop in the cute downtown area. From there it’s just 15 miles or so to the park. We had a rustic cabin reserved for the weekend as you’d be crazy to sleep in a tent in the rain we’ve been experiencing lately. We brought our stuff in to the cabin and turned on the baseboard heaters. It was a small two-room cabin with heat, electricity, several beds, a futon, a microwave & a small fridge. We played cards and drank hot chocolate (with a little peppermint schnapps). Gina was really excited about the brochures warning us about mountain lions and black bears in the park. She locked the door.We went to bed excited for our next day of hiking.

We woke up Saturday to some lazy drizzle. I set up my campstove on the porch and boiled some water for coffee. We got our packs together and made lunch while eating our breakfast and drinking our coffee. We walked through the park to the trail that leads to the loop around all the waterfalls. Silver Falls is a monster state park, the biggest in Oregon at over 9,000 acres. We crossed a bridge and could hear the first waterfall coming up. South Falls is a 177 foot plunge straight off the basalt cliffs. The trail goes behind the falls which is such an incredible experience. We hiked for about 6 miles total seeing 7 waterfalls, several of which had trails behind the falls. We ate lunch on the trail and took tons of photos. It was sprinkling when we began the hike but it quickly stopped and remained surprisingly dry for the rest of our hike.

We arrived back at our cabin and were happy to sit down and relax. It was strangely warm out so I decided to start a little campfire and sit outside with my book. Later I took a shower in the separate bathroom/shower building for the cabin loop. As it became dark out it began raining and it wouldn’t end for days to come. Gina and I spent the night playing cards and talking. We heated up some homemade chili that I had brought and listened to music. Outside it continued pouring rain and we were most grateful for having a warm and dry place to sleep.

Sunday we woke up and packed our lunches while eating breakfast and drinking coffee. We packed up the car and swept the cabin before leaving. We dropped off the key then drove to the trailhead on the other side of the Canyon Trail. We started off down the trail with the rain falling and the colors vibrant. This place is absolutely gorgeous and I think fall is the best time to visit. The fall leaves against the green moss and ferns is stunning. We arrived at North Falls, a 136 plunge with a huge cavern behind the waterfall. We took tons of photos and marveled at how loud it was. The falls were just gushing with all the recent rain. We hiked on to Twin Falls and decided to double back rather than doing the loop since the lower Canyon Trail is more interesting than the upper Rim Trail. We crossed under North Falls again and then continued back to Upper North Falls. It was raining more heavily and the mist coming off the falls was thick. We were happy for our rain hats and to be almost done with our hike. Soon after we were in the car and headed back to Portland. It took us just over an hour to get home (in stark contrast to our Friday night traffic jam).

After unpacking and showering I headed over to Elaine & Gina’s house. Wampler arrived from Trout Lake and we all piled into Elaine’s car to drive to NE Portland. We spent the evening at Lincoln and Alicia’s baby shower. She is due on December 5th and is looking beautiful. The shower was lots of fun with not a one dumb baby game. It was a coed gathering with great food and drinks. It was nice to talk to some people I hadn’t seen in a while and to meet some new people. It was a crazy rainy drive home with leaves clogging the street drains and huge lakes forming in the streets. So much rain!

Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been up to!

xoxo,
carolyn