Silver Falls State Park

We had a great visit with my Mom this Thursday and Friday afternoons.  We brought raspberries from our garden and shared them with ice cream for dessert Thursday.  I shared photos and stories of the family visit in June.  On Friday we took her for a long drive in the valley.  I'll share some photos of the Willamette Valley in another post.

On Friday morning we went on a photography hike in Silver Falls State Park.  Located in the foothills on the east side of the valley, this is the largest state park in Oregon.  While it is less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I have only been there a few times, so this was like a new adventure for me too.



South Falls is the first on a trail that can take you to 10 waterfalls.  The most accessible, it was also the place where we experimented with camera settings.  I will have to continue to experiment with getting the fight shutter setting to 'blur' water but not wash out the rest of the photo.

I couldn't fail on the landscape setting.

We also took some time to figure out how to get the big Nikon on the tripod on the vertical orientation and remember how to set the self timer.  But we're still smiling.

Finally we were off on the trail under the waterfall.

And then down the trail along the creek.

I kept losing Tom, who had the Canon point and shoot and was experimenting on his own.  He seldom gets a camera in his hands because I tend to be a camera hog.  Here he comes.

The next stop was Lower South Falls, and more photography experimenting.

And again we walked under, or behind, the falls.

By then we had to make a decision.  There's sort of a conflict between taking pictures and hiking.  Of course, I wanted to do it all, but we had a timeline, to be back at Mom's by 2:00.  Do we take the short way back, and no more water falls, or take the long way, more waterfalls, but really pushing the time line?

We chose the shorter, Maple Ridge trail, and set off into the magnificent forest, now at a more leisurely pace.  This trail was up hill, and a good work out.

There were resting benches along the way, but we mostly kept moving along.

Ferns layer the forest floor.

Salmon berry.

And then about noon we were back at South Falls, where we ate our trail lunch on a bench with this view.

We took time to visit the gift shop and check out the old lodge, and then were on our way back to the valley.  We stopped at an overlook at North Falls, knowing that there would be much more to explore on another day.