Hiking the Great Northwest: North Falls {Silver Falls State Park}

Surprise! It was a two hike weekend! It wasn't the plan, but that is what happened! An old friend from college made it their new years resolution to hike every weekend this year and called to ask if I would (in his words) "pop his hiking cherry." I had to go easy because this individual is not as seasoned in hiking as I find myself these days. Crazy to me, but this person had not even heard of Silver Falls State Park, so of course that's where we went! He was like a child seeing color for the first time, just amazed by the state of Oregon's only rain forest, running around like a tourist taking pictures of everything.

I switched this hike up a bit, as I have done it so many times. Traditionally, I start at the South Falls Lodge, but this time I went to the North Falls Trailhead and started there. We hiked first down to North Falls and took the junction to Winter Falls. From there we headed back up to the Rim Trail and back to the car for a nice little loop. Even though I know this park like the back of my hand it seems, it was a switch up for my brain to go in the opposite direction starting from another place. It was a little difficult to get down the stairs that lead to the bottom of the canyon as it was covered in fallen ice from the basalt formations. And my slogan was, "if you fall, I will not retrieve your body."

Date of hike: January 4th, 2015
Distance: 3 Mile Loop