Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

What: Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
Where: near Silverton, Oregon--an hour south of Portland, 1/2 hr east of Salem
When: August 2009
Why: Because it's beautiful, has 10 waterfalls, a cold swimming hole, playground, etc.
How much: Small day-use fee, $40ish for a cabin, $18? for a tent site
How long: hours or days

We found a cabin available on a Friday night (lucky us!) after we moved up to the Portland area in June, so I reserved it. It was nice--the mattresses weren't so soft, but it was really nice to have electricity and not have to set up a tent. There are fire pits and a table outside the cabin, a little porch/deck area, and communal bathrooms. The bathrooms have 2 toilet/sink rooms and 2 showers for the whole cabin loop, and you use your cabin key to get in so the tent campers won't be over there.

Here are some shots of the cabin interior:

There is one bunk bed and one double bed in the bedroom and a fold out double-sized futon in the main room, along with a microwave and small fridge. Bring bedding or sleeping bags. We brought cinnamon rolls to warm up for breakfast and it was a hit!

The waterfalls are along the Trail of Ten Falls. We started at the South Falls and hiked 5 miles of the 7 mile loop. We saw 7 falls along that stretch. We were planning to hike the extra 1.2 miles to see another fall (I believe Twin Falls) but when we saw a sign that said it was only about 30 feet, we decided to save our energy and hike to North Falls instead. Good decision. It's a long walk back along the Rim Trail to the South Falls parking area, but it's nice and shady along most of the whole hike so it's good for a hot day! You can't get wet at many falls--I think Double Falls was the only one that you hiked to the bottom of and could get wet. The rest you walked above or behind, which is still really neat--you can walk behind 4 of the falls.

This is North Falls from the road's viewpoint. We drove to the trailhead and hiked the .6 miles down and back. You could also hike the other way for .6 miles and see the Upper North Falls, but we were done by then.

If you have all day and plenty of energy, the whole 7 mile loop would be really neat. The "best" falls are South and North--they are the tallest. So those 2 short hikes would be good with little kids. Or do the South & Lower South, and North & Upper North for a little more.

We drove past a big playground but didn't play there. Also there's a swimming hole that we didn't know about, so we didn't bring swimsuits, but it's supposed to be pretty cold water (I think it's part of a river or creek that is dammed up?) But the falls are amazing, it's really pretty humid because it's kind of a moist rainforest area.

We had a great time and the kids did really well on the long hike because we were looking for the next falls. Along the Rim Trail back we were looking for berries and other things to distract them from the fatigue and make the 1.5 miles go faster. I would highly recommend Silver Falls!