Silver Falls State Park -#11

North Falls - One of ten gorgeous waterfalls
that can be viewed on Canyon Trail

When: 4/3/11

Time: 3hrs 45min

Distance: 7 miles

Difficulty: Moderately easy

Stars: 4

(Kyle posted Dog Mountain before we posted these other ones to show you all that, yes, we basically took off the entire month of May from hiking, but we are still going strong!)

Silver Falls State Park is known as the crown jewel of the state parks in the state of Oregon. There are 10 waterfalls that can be visited by a 7 mile hike. Also, to see the 2 main waterfalls, North and South Falls, there are parking areas by them both so if you want to just see the water you can park and check it out! Silver Falls State Park is so wonderful, one of the ten beautiful waterfalls was featured on the cover of the March issue of Sunset magazine! The Trail of Ten Falls is definitely worth making a visit too, especially on a sunny day like we had.

Kyle and I did this hike on a rare, free Sunday we had. Our frisbee team had a tournament that weekend, but neither of us could go since we both had to work on Saturday. Kyle also had to work on Sunday night, so we had to get out early. The park was about an hour and a half away, with us driving through some small Oregon towns.

The park's beauty speaks for itself! The trail starts off with a steep decline where you are immediately rewarded with a view of South Falls! You even get to walk behind it! From there on we continued walking along Silver Creek with a chance to view each of the 9 other waterfalls. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

South Falls - 177ft tall

In front of Lower South Falls - 93ft tall

Lower North Falls - 30ft tall

Took a short side trail to Double Falls - 178ft tall

Drake Falls - 27ft tall

Middle North Falls - 103ft tall

Another side trip to see Winter Falls - 134ft tall

Twin Falls - 31ft tall

Kyle gazing at the beautiful North Falls - 136ft tall

Last, but not least, Upper North Falls - 65ft tall

All of the waterfalls were off Canyon Trail (aka Trail of Ten Falls) and then we took Rim Trail back to make the hike a nice, 7-mile loop. It was cool to see South Falls from above and then be able to walk behind it! The trail also goes behind North Falls and is actually pretty deep! Most of the waterfalls have cool little stories or unique things about them, so if you want to read more about that, make sure to check out the Silver Falls State Park's website! I want to go back when its warmer out because there is a great swimming area underneath Double Falls and places to splash around in front of Upper North Falls.

Kyle gazing out at the creek and waterfall from
underneath the cave made by North Falls

The hike back on Rim Trail was through the forest and was pretty uneventful. However, we did have this one last wonderful view of North Falls at a break in the trees: