Silver Falls State Park

We went on a little hike Saturday.  The weather was nice and we were excited for our first real hike of the year!  

We went to Silver Falls State Park.  It's not too far a drive from where we live and is known for it's many waterfalls.  It has about 10 miles of hiking trails.  It will take multiple trips for us to explore them all.  Sounds like a good goal to me!

Much of yesterday's trail reminded me of the Hoe Rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula that we visited last summer.  It was so wet at this spot that water was dripping off the branches and plants above us.  That's why the kids' hoods are up, not because it was actually raining.  

After not many minutes, we came to our first large water fall, North Falls.  We started above it, 

then wound our way down to be in front of it.  

Then we were able to walk right next to it,  

and then behind it!  Taylor said it was "a dream come true," to walk behind a waterfall.  Both kids thought it was the neatest thing ever. 

A shot as we were walking back out from behind North Falls.  

And one last look down at North Falls, as the trail starts to climb away. 

The trail followed the river much of the time.  It wound down the canyon and back out, so there was a bit of climbing.  None of it was too steep though.

One of the small, cute, little waterfalls near the trail.  It's so beautiful here, I just couldn't stop taking pictures for the first 15 minutes or so. 
 

We crossed the river again, this time we used a bridge, nothing as exciting as going behind a waterfall. 

Our 2nd large waterfall was called, Twin Falls.  

We hiked a loop that was right at 4 miles.  At one point we could look across the canyon and see our old friend, North Falls.  We could also hear it quite well, at that spot.  The roaring water sound just carried through the air, uninterrupted.  

We had a great hike and day together as a family.  Can't wait to do it again.