South Falls at Silver Falls State Park

Well, if it was a "dream come true" for Taylor to walk behind a waterfall, I don't know what to call the other day, when she walked behind, not just one, but two different waterfalls, on the same day.

We went to Silver Falls State Park again, only this time we explored the South end of the park.  At least the falls we saw this time are called, "South Falls" and "Lower South Falls."  

Taylor's at the trail head and ready to get moving.  For how sunny it was, it wasn't that warm.

Logan is all ready to go too.  We should have realized from the beginning that he was going to have trouble using his walking stick properly.  

We had just got going on the hike when we came to The Lodge, where a huge poster asked a very important question, "What is Your Wing Span?"  

Well, we didn't know, so we had to stop and find out.  Logan and Taylor's wing span is about the same as a Red-tailed Hawk, it turns out, about 4 feet.  

The hike started out above the waterfall.  See the tiny, little bridge and trail down there?  That's where we end up.  

In fact, this is a picture of the kids on that bridge, with "South Falls" behind them.  

So we started our hike waaaaay up there and wound our way down to here.  

But let's back up because that's not even the first waterfall we came to along the trail.  We walked on a trail called, "Maple Ridge Trail" for about 2 miles.

Then we came down to the level of the river and followed that for quite a while.

This little cascade of water was near the trail.  I enjoy these mini waterfalls.  I think the water trickling over the pebbles is so pretty.  

We then reached the first large waterfall of our hike, Lower South Falls.  It's 93 feet tall.  

This was our first view of the waterfall, as we came around a corner.  

Behind Lower South Falls.

 Logan after going behind the waterfall.

Lower South Falls and the trail.  

This is a typical snapshot of our family on a hike, kids are in perpetual motion and James and I are trying to take pictures of the scenery.  
 

Here you can see the stairs we climbed after going behind the waterfall.  

Before we knew it, we were at the bridge in front of the second waterfall, South Falls.  It's 177 feet tall. 

We walked up to and...

behind South Falls. 

Then walked up a relatively short and steep climb out of the canyon. 

One last look back at South Falls.  

After the hike the kids played around this bridge near the trail head.  From here we could see the river flow downstream.  We could not see the edge of the waterfall, but we knew it wasn't far downstream from us.  

This is where the river takes a nose dive and where our hike had started.  We'd come full circle and had hiked 4 miles.  Another great hike under our belt.  We are enjoying this sunny weather.  

We're also excited that graduation is only 5 weeks away!  Yay!!!  I can't believe it.  

That means that we're moving in 4 weeks and a few days.  We've decided to move to our new town (where we're signing a 12-month lease) before James graduates, so by the time graduation comes we'll be living in our new town!  

We're going to be established and settled!  Can't wait.