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Off to Silver Falls
The next place on our list was Silver Falls. Silver Falls is known as the “Crown Jewel” of the Oregon State Parks. The campground was full. But we found a spot in the nearby town of Silverton, OR. From here, it was a quick 20 minute drive to the park.
The Loop Trail
We hiked the entirety of the Loop Trail at Silver Falls. It’s listed as a moderate 7.2 mile loop. But when we added up all of our milage after taking some side routes, we ended the day closer to 9 miles.
So Many Waterfalls
The main attractions of Silver Falls are… the falls.
North Falls
We started our hike from the South Falls Day Use area. Then, we hiked past the top of Winter Falls toward North Falls. We were told hiking this direction was the best way to do it. Who knows. Either direction gets you good views of the 10 or so falls. The first we came to was Upper North Falls.
A short distance down the trail was North Falls. It was also the first waterfall we were able to hike behind.
More Falls
From there we continued down the trails and cut over to see the base of Winter Falls.
Along the way, we also saw Twins Falls, Middle North Falls, Drake Falls, and Lower North Falls.
South Falls
The most popular falls and easiest to access is South Falls. It’s also where our loop trail would end. When we finally made it to the final falls of our loop, it was getting hot and the light wasn’t all that great. We passed behind Lower South falls and took some photos.
But I didn’t really like the harsh afternoon light on South Falls.
So we decided to call it a day and come back later in the week when things weren’t so busy.
South Falls
We went back to South Falls in the evening. It’s easy to access and is a great little hike down to the bottom if you only have time for a quick stop at Silver Falls State Park.
On to the Columbia River
And with that, we packed it up and looked on to our next stop on the Columbia River Gorge.