The First Day
Our arrival in Portland was timed so that we'd basically go straight to the hotel and go to sleep. The plan was to get up bright and early and be on the move. As it turned out, Roy had a bit of a cold (which was murder on his ears during landing), and he developed a bit of fever overnight, so we moved "early start" down the priority list below "not get so sick that we have to cancel the whole trip."
Fortunately, the fever broke in the wee hours of the morning, and we were good to go, anyway. Our first stop, based on recommendations from B&B hosts, was The Oregon Garden. Disappointingly, we left our Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center membership card at home, or admission would have been free, thanks to reciprocal privileges. Oh, well, we're sure the Gardens can use the income.
The Gardens themselves were not particularly outstanding in August. Outside the Garden, though is the Frank Lloyd Wright Gordon House, which is kind of neat. We took a few pictures of it from the outside and moved on.
The window fretwork pattern is the icon of the Gordon House.
The info plaque, and a view of the carport side.
Looking up the Willamette Valley as we cross a pass.
Silver Falls State Park
Shelly heads down to the first falls. Those trees sure look tall.
Our main objective for the day was Silver Falls State Park, and we were not disappointed with it. While the entire 10-falls loop is 10 miles long, the major falls are accessible by much shorter hikes.
Upper South Falls is the tallest and most picturesque in the park. At 177 feet tall, it's pretty high. To get an idea of scale, those are people on the trail behind the falls.
More than once on this trip, Roy wished he'd splurged on a wide-angle lens. Instead, these stitched panoramas will have to do.
The basin, and the Upper South Falls from further down the trail.
Though pretty, it's not as impressive as Upper South. It is probably better in the spring when there is more flow.
The trail begins at Upper South Falls and walks you behind the falls, then continues to Lower South Falls. Shelly's feet were hurting pretty badly, so Roy trotted on ahead to see what Lower South had to offer. The path climbed a ways, and then went down quite a lot of stairs to the falls viewpoint.
Looking up through the trees...yep, they're tall.
Upper North Falls
After seeing both of the south falls, we went back to the car and drove to the north end of the park. From there, it was a short hike to Upper North and Lower North. Unfortunately, Shelly's feet would not take any more hiking after getting to Upper North, so Roy went to Lower North to get a few pictures.
Watch your head going around the bend, and then the falls comes into sight.
This falls has a space behind it that even has a few benches.
You can sit on a bench and enjoy the view for a while.