Silver Falls

Feeling a little bit of Euro-travel hangover, I got out of the house my first weekend back to check out some new trails in Oregon. Silver Falls State Park is just over an hour from home, filled with incredible basaltic rock structures threaded with 10 waterfalls and one heavily beaten trail.

Why I thought it would be a good idea to go to one of the most popular state parks in Oregon on one of the early warm Saturdays in June (a few weekends after school let out) is now beyond me. The first parking lot I stopped at was overflowing, but a helpful volunteer (cheerily napping flint behind his table) directed me to the main park area. Even there, the parking lot was busy, and at mid-morning families were well into BBQ'ing on the lawns. 

Crossing a bridge and dropping into the canyon, there were still so many non-walkers stumbling on the rocky steps and selfie-ing in front of the falls that the going was slow. There were only a few places were I could put myself on 'cruise control' and flow along with the water through the canyon. For all that, it was entirely worth it! The waterfalls come faster than one per mile, and two of them include paths behind the curtain along the ancient wall of the plunge pools.

 In other places, the wall washed over the basalt on slides that looked almost slick enough to ride down... almost... really, that basalt tends to be sharp! A few of the falls were tucked into their own tiny valleys, requiring a detour to see the rivulets splash down from step to step before disappearing into the thicket and finally re-join the main river.

The final section of the hike was a few miles along the rim of the canyon, a fast-track on packed fir needles to the parking area. It was long the road and a little less interesting, but after the packed lower trails it felt good to cover some ground. Next time, I'll maybe take the loop in a counter-clockwise direction, starting with the Rim trail and finishing the loop with the largest of the waterfalls!

Missing monastaries on the hills and biergartens with locally-made bratwurst, I detoured through Mt Angel on the way home. I've promised friends that I'll wait for them to come visit before going to the Benedictine Brewery, but I did stop by the Mt Angel Sausage Co for lunch... oof, the brat was fine, if overpriced. The saurkraut should have been served hot on the side. The mustard was good. The Costco hogie it was served on made me want to cry. Resolved: I need to get back to Germany, stat!