SILVER FALLS STATE PARK

The Ten Falls hike at Silver Falls State Park ranks right up near the top of my "favorite hikes" list (which, since it exists only in my head, is easily edited). It had a few points in its favor before we even got started: we had a perfect, sunny day for hiking, with a high temperature around 70 or 75 degrees; and, we are in Oregon, beautiful, leafy, emerald green Oregon.

Wildflowers, from big gaudy bushes of Scotch Broom (I know... it is considered invasive and undesireable here in the Pacific Northwest, but it looked SO beautiful and graceful in full, golden bloom) to tiny little white starflowers, bloomed alongside the road and the trails. We headed off from the lodge and, within a few minutes, we came around a curve to face the "best" of the ten falls, South Falls, 177' of falling water. Wow!

I took this "full length" shot of the falls WITH ODEL to show the scale of the falls... but I doubt that you call see him, even in his red shirt. I can barely find him and I know just where to look.

So, here he is in a closer shot. See the trail, around behind the falls?



Hard to figure this picture out, isn't it? We were standing behind the falls, looking out and up.

After our hike, we stopped in the visitor center gift shop to buy an Oregon State Parks Annual Pass, which will cover the day use fees for any Oregon state park we visit during the next year. We paid a volunteer, who turned out to be a fulltimer volunteering in exchange for her campsite. I had spent about an hour on the Oregon State Park website last night looking at the volunteer opportunities, so we pumped her for all kinds of info. Every so often, volunteering seems like an appealing idea - until I have had dinner and a glass or two of wine and imagine a camper knocking on my door needing help!