Silver Falls State Park is about an hour and forty-five minute drive from Portland, just southeast of Salem. The drive was the perfect length to leave me bored with that particular treatment of my anger, yet still enraged enough to carry me through the 7.2 mile hike around the Trail of Ten Falls.
Here is a map:
There are two spots to start: the North Falls Trailhead which has one small loop and connects to the larger loop, and the South Falls Trailhead which begins at the Stone Circle and has three hikes, varying in length from 2.6 miles to 7.2 miles.
I took the longest hike, which carried me past ten separate waterfalls. Starting at the Stone Circle I walked up toward the South Falls, toward the Lower South Falls, along the Canyon trail to the Lower North Falls, Drake Falls, and Middle North Falls. At that point I kept going along the longer trail to Twin Falls before turning back to go on the Winter Trail past Winter Falls. After that walked along the Rim Trail back to the Stone Circle, got my car, and headed toward the North Falls Trailhead to walk past the Upper North Falls and the North Falls. I didn't take pictures of either of those two waterfalls, as the return to civilization in the middle of the hike brought through some text messages that renewed my rage and forced me to turn off my phone so as to deter me from running someone down in my car. However, the hike itself was beautiful.
The beauty was enough to dull some of the sharper edges of my fury. I plan to go back and see it again when I'm in a more centered frame of mind, and I can tell that I would have a very different experience while calm and collected than my dickbag of an ex's childish behavior allowed me to have that day.
Can you tell I'm totally over it? Haha.
Anyway, the following are pictures I took that day with descriptions of each falls as best I can remember.
South Falls
These falls were absolutely beautiful. It wasn't far from the Stone Circle starting point, really only a few yards. The path carried you behind the falls...
for an even nicer view.
Lower South Falls
After a walk down a nice forest path
I came upon the lower South Falls from behind, walked a bit past them and then back toward them along a staircase built into the side of the hill.
It was another beautiful waterfall.
Lower North Falls
These falls weren't as impressive, but were still very nice.
Double Falls
To get to Double Falls you had to walk a little farther down a path that left the main path. It wasn't far, only a couple of minutes walk. It's called that because of it's height.
The falls were very pretty and the spray was pretty refreshing (the heat of the day matched the heat of my ire).
Drake Falls
These were likewise pretty unimpressive, but still pretty, with a more gradual slope than the other falls.
Middle North Falls
This waterfall was beautiful, with multiple layers to the falls. The main waterfall was a thin stream that fell away from the rock behind, with more water streaming right down against the rock itself.
Gorgeous.
Twin Falls
Twin Falls was not as impressive as some of the others, and unfortunately there wasn't a great camera angle on it, although I may not have looked as hard as I generally would.
Winter Falls
The final falls that I was able to photograph, Winter Falls was lovely.
It was a nice way to finish that part of the hike, although it wasn't finished as there was a still a small way to walk in order to return to my car. Actually, not so small that it was impossible to get lost. I accidentally switched from the hiking trail to the bike trail, which meant that it took me a little longer to get back, but I survived.
Next time I go, I'll update this blog and take photos of the North Falls and Upper North Falls. They were both pretty beautiful.
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