Silver Falls State Park

4-22-21: Leaving Battle Ground today I’m undecided on where to head next, weather is looking rainy by the weekend throughout the PNW and I have thoughts of maybe diverting to Bend, OR for a chance at better weather. But I really wanted more time at Silver Falls State Park . Located only 1.5 hours south of the Portland area and featuring 10 waterfalls and miles of trails, this park is truly epic. On my last visit the Park Ranger told me that they were offering a few spots on a first-come first-serve basis because the water was shut off making them less desirable. I’m fine with dry camping and if nothing is available I can continue on for a couple more hours to Bend. I head out, fingers crossed, hoping to score a spot.

On my way out of town I stopped to pick up some free firewood I had seen in a Facebook marketplace ad. Campfires were definitely in my plans.

I arrived just after the campground checkout time of 1pm and managed to score a spot!

While registering the friendly Ranger said that I could reserve each day or multiple days now since the current occupant has “dibs” each day up to the limit at 14 days. Yes, please I’ll take 3 nights 🙂

With plenty of daylight left after setting up camp, I headed out on the bike to check out the area. Being a Thursday the crowds were small and I rode over to the South Falls day use area on the bike path to explore and take some photos and videos.

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With no crowds I was able to spend time capturing some great images and got inspired to create a page for the site with inspiring and peaceful videos and audio clips for people to enjoy. You can check out TEN seconds of ZEN when you need a relaxing moment!

Next I was off to explore the rest of the bike path and some of the 35 miles of trails. This was my first real chance to go off road on my new Sondors MXS e-bike and I have to say it did great and handled the rough stuff pretty well for a 60 pound bike. I was especially impressed on the really rough sections that had been chewed up by the horses, lets just say the bike did great and I realized that I have gotten pretty rusty with the gnarly sections.

Having worked up an appetite it was time to head back to camp and get the grill fired up.

Once the food was out, I had a visit from the Blue Jay mafia

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I put out some bird seed in hopes of keeping my dinner safe. These little guys were super aggressive and it was fun to watch them establish their “pecking order” with each other. Quality entertainment.

More falls on Friday!

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North Falls was even more impressive than South Falls, hard to believe, but it had a large cave like area behind the falls that even had benches so you could sit and enjoy the view.

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Glad I was able to spend some more time at this wonderful park. If you find yourself in this part of the country I highly recommend you make time for a visit. While the Trail of Ten Falls is a moderate 7.2 mile loop with only 800ft of elevation change, the biggest waterfalls are very easy walks from their trail head parking areas and you could easily picnic and knock off a few waterfalls during a day trip from Salem or the Portland area.