Monday, November 17, 2014

Silver Falls in the Autumn Light

Fall colors had finally started to really show near the end of October, so we planned a little trip down into Oregon. We stayed the night in Salem with Ivan and Terry, and then we went to Silver Falls SP in the morning. Silver Falls is Oregon’s largest and most popular state park, and there is almost always loads of people there. But after some very rainy days and it being Monday, the park was pretty quiet.

We hiked most of the Trail of Ten Falls with all of us (about 5 miles). Dana went the extra bit to see all the waterfalls, and Magnus also did one extra part.

The first and biggest waterfall was South Falls. It is very pretty there and we love seeing it.

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By this one there is a short detour to see the very small eleventh waterfall: Frenchie Falls.

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South Falls is also pretty cool because the trail goes behind it and there are lots of cool tiny caves to explore.

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The trail continued downstream and we admired the pretty colors in the trees.

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Soon we came to Lower South Falls, which we had not been to before. The trail also goes behind this one. See if you can see Ruth and Magnus to the left of the falls in the second picture.

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Going behind:

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We took a family photo here:

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The trail then wraps around and heads up the North Fork of Silver Creek. Soon we found Lower North Falls.

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Double Falls and Drake Falls:

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Middle North Falls was Dana’s favorite.

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A side trail also goes behind this one.

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Twin Falls and Winter Falls:

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Upper North Falls:

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Magnus and Dana went down to North Falls together. North Falls has an enormous cavern behind it that you can walk through.

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View from behind:

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We had a great day at Silver Falls and ended with a nice meal in Silverton, OR. Fall is really a nice time to get outside.

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