Dave Goes Outside: Trail of Ten Falls - Silver Falls state park

8 miles
800 feet elevation gain

One of the must do hikes in Oregon, and any list of best hikes in Oregon will include this hike. I've only done it twice because it's an hour away, but both times were amazing.

It's phenomenal because the sheer bang for the buck you get on the hike. You see at least 10 waterfalls, and almost every one would be the subject of their own hike in other parks, even in the Gorge. 8 miles of pure Oregon beauty.

I'll describe the hike from the Counter Clockwise loop starting at the South Falls. I've done this hike in late summer and early spring. If you want color, fall is when to go. If you want some serious waterfall action, go in early spring as the water levels are high. The waterfalls in spring were almost frightening but awe inspiring.

I started at South Falls, the second most impressive falls in the hike. First most impressive, if you go when water levels are high, which makes the waterfall twice as wide. You descend down the side of the cliff in the falls amphitheater and go right behind the Falls. It's a great way to start a hike.

After you reach the bottom, you follow the creek a little bit before the creek drops yet again, and you go behind it yet again, for lower south falls. Take in the view, and continue down the trail. Soon you hit the junction of north and south forks of silver creek. You head up the north fork. It's a little while before the next falls, lower north falls, comes in to view. It's one of the lesser falls, just a waterslide over some rocks. Shortly after this comes a short spur trail to the left side to Double Falls, a high but light two tiered falls. Up the trail from here is Drake Falls, a hard to see falls in a narrow slot and the least remarkable of all the falls. Keep going and soon you'll see Middle North Falls down another spur trail, and another falls you can walk behind for glorious fun.

Past this you see a junction to cut the hike into 2/3rds of the full length. That's for lame people.

The next part of the hike is kind of boring, and the longest stretch without anything interesting going on. Twin falls makes an appearance, but it's short and hard to get a good angle of. After a while though, you begin to hear it...North falls. North Falls falls dramatically over a cliff overhang, and of course you can walk behind it under the cliff. It's great. A great place to sit ad have lunch. Then you can finally leave, and above North Falls is a junction. One heads back to the trailhead, the other goes a half mile upstream to Upper North Falls, a great waterfall with a fun stream area to play around in. Then you have the boring part, a 2-3 mile walk along the road back to the parking lot. Smart people would actually do the hike in the opposite direction, seeing north falls first and getting this crappy part out of the way. Along the final boring stretch is the final falls, Winter Falls, which is only there during winter.

I'll post pictures now, because you really need to see the falls at both levels of water. Check out these differences. Don't be fooled, these make the summer falls look really lame, but they aren't, they were great. It's just that the winter/spring water levels are so absurd.

South Falls: