Waterfall Jackpot

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Silver Falls State Park

I spent today in Silver Falls State Park, the oldest and largest in Oregon.

It exists mainly due to the effort of photographer June Drake in the 1920s, who thought the area was beautiful and needed preservation.

At the time it had been thoroughly logged.

His photographs of area waterfalls went a long way to persuading people to agree with him.





The first thing visitors see is a beautiful lodge made of local stone and timber, Historic South Falls Lodge

It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940

Inside contains a long central dining room with wooden furniture (some of which is original) and a stone fireplace.

It also contains a memorial to June Drake, with samples of his work.





This park has no waterfall named ‘Silver Falls’.

The name refers to a creek.

The park wraps around a pair of sandstone canyons containing eleven waterfalls.

A few are disappointing but the rest are major sights.

All of them lie along a single loop trail, the Trail of Ten Falls.

The walk between the falls along the canyon is long in places, but very pretty with big second growth trees everywhere.

The walk from the final waterfall back to the start goes through upland country covered in more pine trees.

These trees are not as large as those seen elsewhere, though (see Grand Gorge).

South Falls

The first major waterfall, and the one pictured in most guidebooks, is South Falls, which is located close to the lodge.

One first sees it from the rim of a canyon.

Like Yahoo Falls in Kentucky (see The Cumberland) the waterfall drops in a grotto, in front of a huge cave in the rock.

South Falls is taller and wider than Yahoo Falls and the cave is bigger, but it held fewer rocks and fell in shadow.

The trail drops down the side of the canyon, into the cave, and behind the waterfall.

The cave and waterfall appear from all angles.

The cave was less visually interesting that Yahoo Falls.

Seeing the downstream canyon through the water was a treat.





Downstream, the canyon reaches Lower South Falls.

This waterfall is half the height of South Falls and more than twice the width.

The trail also goes behind this one.

Unlike South Falls, it has no cave behind it.

The trail is right next to the water, like Dry Falls (see The Land of Falling Water).

Like that waterfall, walking behind it meant taking a minor bath.

I put up with it to see the waterfall 😊





From here, the trail soon reaches the canyon junction and then wanders up the other canyon.

It passes a few unremarkable smaller falls.

Drake Falls, for example, slides down a small rock ledge.

This one is extra frustrating because the park has erected a safety fence near the waterfall that prevents anyone from seeing it fully.

A side canyon goes to Double Falls, the highest in the park.

A little stream does a small drop onto a ledge, and then a very long fall from that ledge into a bowl.

The two drops give the waterfall its name.

Thanks to the size, the narrow canyon, and trees in the way, getting a full picture of this waterfall is nearly impossible.

I found it only moderately impressive due to the water level.





Continuing on from Double Falls, the trail reaches Middle North Falls.

From the first distant viewpoint, the waterfall drops onto the side of a bowl, then drops down it to the bottom.

It’s about has high as Lower South Falls.

A side path runs along the rim of the bowl to the waterfall.

The trail ends at the waterfall instead of behind it because any slip would be really dangerous.

North Falls

From here, the trail continues up the canyon.

It is long and flat, with views of pine trees, the stream, and another unremarkable waterfall.

I was beginning to despair about finding anything worth hiking this long when another large bowl came into view.

Said bowl held another huge cave with another waterfall freefalling in front of it.

This is North Falls, nearly the mirror image of South Falls.

North Falls is a little shorter and the cave had a flat roof instead of a rounded one, which cut off views within the cave to some extent.

The trail went through the cave, giving another view through the waterfall.





From North Falls, the trail scrambles up the side of the canyon, every bit as steep as the descent as South Falls.

Once at creek level again, it passed under a highway bridge and continued upstream.

This revealed yet another waterfall, Upper North Falls.

It is a ledge pour over into a grotto.

The waterfall is unusual because it is one of only two that people see from the bottom instead of the middle or top (Double Falls is the other).

I think this view made the waterfall impressive even though it can’t compare to some on height.





After Upper North Falls, I had a hike back to the lodge.

It goes through a pine forest above the canyons.

The first part was along a steep slope, with a distant view of North Falls, and then through flat plateau.

As noted earlier, all of the forest was second growth pine.

Along the way, a sign pointed into a ravine for Winter Falls.

A few steep switchbacks later, I reached the falls.

A side creek falls a long way down the head of the ravine.

Unfortunately, it had very little water, so the waterfall was even less impressive than Double Falls.

Mount Hood from Portland

After the park, I had had a long drive north into Washington State.

I decided to take some time and see something I had missed earlier in the week.

Remember that view of Mount Hood from last night?

The air was clear enough I figured I could see it from Portland.

I went back to Pittock (see Urban Wilderness).

The mansion was closed but the grounds were still open.

Sure enough, they had the perfect view of Mount Hood that Henry Pittock loved so much.

They also held a perfect view of another famous area volcano, Mount Saint Helens.

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Photos

South Falls
South Falls at Silver Falls State Park. Look for the colorful specks in the crack at the top of the vegitation; these are hikers behind the waterfall.

Lower South Falls
Lower South Falls in Silver Falls State Park. The hiking trail behind the falls is roughly halfway up the cliff.

Middle North Falls
Middle North Falls in Silver Falls State Park, from an overlook along the main trail.

North Falls
North Falls at Silver Falls State Park. I took the photo along the approach to the cave behind the falls.

Upper North Falls
Upper North Falls at Silver Falls State Park

Henry Pittock's Mount Hood
Mount Hood over downtown Portland, one of the iconic images of Oregon. Henry Pittock deliberately situated his house and bedroom to see this view. I shot the picture from the yard in front of the house.

The cave behind South Falls
Look for the people on the left to see the huge scale

South Falls from cave
View of the downstream gorge through the waterfall

Silver Creek Gorge
On the way to Lower South Falls

Lower South Falls cave
Look for the people in the lower right to get the scale

Double Falls
The waterfall is so tall that its nearly impossible to frame it in one shot. This is about the lower two thirds

Twin Falls
Thanks to the safety fence, this is basically the only view available

Hanging moss
On the way to Upper North Falls

Gorge overlook
Look for North Falls on the far right

Winter Falls
Another waterfall that is tall enough that getting it all in one picture is difficult. This is roughly the middle third.

Old growth trees
Very few trees survived area logging. These are a few of them.

Four Freedoms mural
Norman Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms to raise funds for World War II. Someone turned them into a mural on a building at the park.