This past week on one of my days off I convinced the girls to go on a hike to see some waterfalls. Victoria’s always up for something new, but Rotchana takes some convincing when it comes to walking any kind of distance. Luckily, this time it didn’t take much coercing other than promising that she’d think it’s worth it once she saw the waterfalls.
We ended up driving about an hour and a half south near Salem to Silver Falls State Park. I’d seen some photos and people at work have been mentioning it so that is why we chose to go there.
The park has a loop trail that covers about 7 or 8 miles and promises 10 waterfalls, but we didn’t have time to do the entire loop so we drove to the South Falls parking area and hiked about half a mile to the first waterfall.
The South Falls is about 177 feet tall, but what makes it really cool is that the trail winds around the falls and you can walk behind to get a different perspective than you’d normally get of a waterfall. Although there was some elevation changes during the hike, both of the girls were having too much fun posing for photos to realize how far we’d hiked or how deep into the canyon we’d gone. After about an hour wandering around the area we made it back to the car and decided to drive over to the North Falls area and take a look.
The North Falls is the third highest falls in the park at 136 feet. This time we had to meander down a trail alongside the canyon walls before reaching the base. As does the trail at the South Falls, we were able to take the trail around and behind the falls. Once again, the girls were too busy taking photos to realize how far we’d gone.
If you’re ever in the Salem area of Oregon you should check this park out. I’m sure we’ll go back and check out the rest of the waterfalls before this next summer winds down.
