Last week I covered the first half of my hike around Silver Falls State Park near Portland, Oregon. You can see those images here.
After seeing North Falls, we continued on our trek through the woods. The trees in this area are gigantic compared to what you see here on the East Coast. They aren’t redwoods by any means, but they are still absolutely spectacular. I remarked on this last week, but the green moss covers everything in this region. It truly is spectacular.
After about a mile trek along the ridgeline, we descended once more to the next fall, South Falls. The vantage points of South Falls weren’t quite as good as those of North, but the waterfall is still quite spectacular. My photographs were heavily impacted by mist blowing downstream and a very unsteady bridge—however, the next waterfall, Lower South Falls, was just as beautiful.
The sheer amount of water coming over these cliffs is breathtaking. Like several of the waterfalls in this park, you could walk behind this one, but you definitely got soaked.
After passing Lower South, we spotted a couple of unnamed falls that were flowing directly into the river from the snow melt on the other side. They both had a decent amount of flow, considering they were being powered by very small tributaries.
Soon afterward, we came to the tallest waterfall in Silver Falls State Park. The editing on the photo below was VERY tedious because the spray of this 170-foot monster falls was hurtling 100 yards downstream. It took combining six photos to get rid of most of the water spots, and even that leaves some room for improvement.
This was definitely my favorite waterfall in the park: Double Falls. From this angle, you can just barely make out the upper drop, but the main one is the show anyway.
There are several more falls beyond Double Falls on the loop, but the last truly spectacular one is Lower North Falls. By this point in our hike, the sun had fully broken through the clouds allowing rainbows to form in the spray. From this angle, you could see the full profile of the fall with the rainbow beneath, a truly beautiful sight.
After seeing Lower North, we headed back to the car to continue with work meetings, but I won’t forget this incredible trip to the Pacific Northwest anytime soon.
