Tryon Creek State Park

A week of near record-breaking rainfall in western Oregon made me skeptical as to whether or not I'd be able to head out into the wilderness this past weekend at all. I awoke Saturday to rain but I was determined to hike. My new camera bag is waterproof, so I thought that as long as I stayed clear of torrential downpours it would be relatively safe inside the bag.

I helped my wife get ready for work, and when she left, I poured myself another cup of coffee, sat down with my trail guides and tried to find a hike. Mt. Hood and the area around it was hit hard with snow, so I sadly had to check that off the list. The Columbia River Gorge was also hit with snow, ice, and heavy (cold!) winds. The Clackamas River area ranger suggested I wait till another weekend due to the possibility of flash-floods and other dangers when I called to inquire about taking that trail's conditions. I was left with one obvious option: look close to home within the Portland Metropolitan Area for a hike; knock off one of the hikes right here in the city.

I decided to set my sights upon Tryon Creek State Park, located in a green gully between Portland and the ritzy suburb of Lake Oswego. Tryon Creek S.P. is also, coincidentally, next door neighbors with Lewis & Clark College, so you can imagine how beautiful the campus is. Being a state park, Tryon is family friendly and filled with easy hikes. You could walk around this park all day and not once break a sweat. There is a visitor center with a gift shop and conference room, a large parking area full of Subarus with car-carriers, rangers leading bird-watching tours, wide walking paths with benches spaced out along many of the hikes, and lots and lots of trail-runners in their spandex shorts and jogging shoes. This is not the place you'll find your die-hard outdoorsy types, in other words. You're much more likely to see a senior citizen couple in cataract sunglasses slowly walking down a blacktopped trail talking about trilliums or a child or two climbing on an old tree trunk while their parents tell them over and over to "please be careful for mommy."

As for my opinion of and final thoughts on Tryon Creek S.P., please see the bottom of this post. I have mixed feelings for this place which I will share momentarily.

The highlight of my entire day can be seen in the photograph below. While walking down the Big Fir trail, I heard the thump-thump of a woodpecker, which can frequently be seen in these woods, apparently. He was perched low on a dead douglas fir right on the trail. I crept up on him slowly, so as not to scare him away. I was shocked at how close he let me get to take his picture. Here below, is that picture: a large pileated woodpecker chipping away at a mossy douglas fir.

Pileated Woodpecker in Tryon Creek S.P. (photo enhanced for clarity)

Tryon Creek S.P. has roughly 8 miles worth of hiking trails within its boundaries. Most of these hikes weave themselves into a tight knot within one square mile of the visitor center, with a few of them extending beyond. One of these trails that extends beyond, Cedar Trail, is known for being extremely muddy and slippery for most of the winter. I indeed found it to be so today. And not wanting to risk slipping and belly-flopping on top of my new camera, I decided to just explore the other trails. This ended up being a good idea for one main reason: the sporadic weather.

When I exited my vehicle eager to start hiking and photographing, it was sunny and promising. Ten minutes later it was raining. I jammed the camera in the bag and took cover under a large canopy of cedars. Minutes later, it was sunny again. The camera and I emerged from under the trees. Fifteen minutes later, rain. On and on this cycle went for about 4 hours. At one point I gave up on the weather, thinking that rain was going to continue for the rest of the day. I sadly got back in the car and exited the parking lot. I maybe made it 2 miles down the road back home when the sun came out and shined brighter than it had all day. I whipped an illegal U-turn and returned to the park, only to park my car and walk about 500 yards before the rain started up again.

This is winter in the Pacific Northwest in a nutshell.

But, despite moving in and out of tree cover to keep my new camera from getting an unwanted drink of rainwater, I was able to snap a few photos to adequately capture the hiking trails that weave and knot around each other near the visitor center. These trails include Maple Ridge, Middle Creek, Big Fir, Center, Red Fox, and Old Main.

Tryon Creek S.P. Parking Area

Tryon Creek S.P. Visitor Center

Old Main Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Muddy Boot Print

Maple Ridge Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

High Bridge - Tryon Creek S.P.

A quick word on one of the best reasons to visit Tryon Creek S.P.: old-growth tree trunks.

Historically speaking, the woods that constitute Tryon Creek S.P. were logged around the end of the nineteenth century, according to my guide book. So even though what you experience in Tryon is a second-growth forest, some of the tree trunks from the massive trees that used to occupy this forest are still seen all over the park. I have to admit, this is one of the greatest reasons to come here. Many of the trunks are gnarled, Halloweeny, and have taken on a sort of macabre look after their decades of decay. Some of them are absolutely massive, like the one I photographed below. Luck for you, the viewer, a child was climbing around on the trunk, giving you an idea of just how large this old tree must have been before it was cut down. You'll find countless other old-growth trunks like this one strewn throughout the park. 

Child climbing on old-growth cedar stump - Tryon Creek S.P.

Big Fir Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Near High Bridge - Tryon Creek S.P.

Wet and muddy Middle Creek Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Tryon Creek S.P.

Posted near High Bridge - Tryon Creek S.P.

Big Fir Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Tryon Creek S.P.

Winter is actually supposed to be a great time to visit Tryon Creek S.P. because of the spawning of steelhead and salmon. However, due to the copious amounts of rain the area has been experiencing, the water in Tryon Creek was a muddy, mucky brown, about as transparent as a thick cup of hot chocolate. Maybe if you were to stand on one of the parks numerous bridges long enough you would've seen a silver fin poke up and out of the muddy water momentarily, or maybe a dark shadow, but needless to say this was not the weekend for fish-watching.

Big Fir Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Red Fox Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Tryon Creek S.P.

Tryon Creek

Middle Creek Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Cedar

Douglas Fir

Red Fox Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

Maple Ridge Trail - Tryon Creek S.P.

With the exception of the woodpecker, the day was largely anti-climactic. Part of me wishes I had just left the camera at home and just hiked all 8 miles worth of trail in the park, since the cycle of sun-rain-sun-rain kept me from getting too far from my car in the event of a downpour. I was impatient to both get outside and use the new camera. But these trails aren't going anywhere. If anything, with it being winter, they will only get prettier and prettier in the short-term once Spring and Summer brings the trillium blossoms that this park is known for. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have locked the camera in the trunk and gone out and gotten dirty. Next time weather encroaches on my weekend hike, I will do just that.

Here are my thoughts on Tryon Creek S.P.

Having started this blog with Salmon River trail in the Mt. Hood National Forest was in a way the kiss-of-death for all of these hikes within the Portland Metropolitan Area. Nothing within the city is going to compete with the forest my wife and I encountered along the Salmon River. But a forest is a forest, and a hike is a hike, and any nature is better than no nature. Regardless, while walking through Tryon Creek I couldn't help but realize how noticeably inferior it was to Salmon River. In all honesty, I would even take a hike in measly Talbert Nature Park in Clackamas (see my previous post) to Tryon Creek S.P. any day.

But that's okay, because the type of people who regularly visit Tryon Creek are probably very different than the type of people who regularly visit Salmon River and the like. You have to appreciate each for what they are. Tryon is for families, for quick walks in the park with grandma or with the kids, for trail-runners who live in Portland or go to school at Lewis & Clark, for middle school field trips, for quick nature fixes "away from" the city. Tryon is not for "hikers", per se. If you come here expecting to find a hike, you'll be bored. If you come here to get lost in nature, you'll be constantly reminded by the crowds, park benches, children, and yuppie trail-runners that you are, in fact, still in the city. 

I have read, however, that Tryon Creek S.P. is an excellent place to visit in the autumn, for the variety of colors you'll find in the forest, and in the spring for the trillium blossom. I will return to this park in the near future on both occasions and will post my findings of course using photographs. Until then, as far as the winter goes, if what you're looking for a just a quick and easy "escape" from the city, Tryon Creek will fill that need wonderfully. To be quite frank, I would even recommend Mt. Talbert Nature Park in Clackamas (see my previous post) over Tryon Creek S.P. if this is what you seek. But, if you're looking for an epic journey into the wilderness to cure your ever-growing cabin-fever, I wouldn't suggest coming here.



Tryon Creek State Park- just south of Portland, just north of Lake Oswego.

Two More Books Added to my Portland-Area Hiking Stack

This last weekend I drove downtown to my favorite retailer in the world, Powell's Books, to sell them some of the books I've recently read and no longer want to have occupy space on my shelves at home. I received roughly $15 in store credit and immediately bolted over to the outdoor section of the massive bookstore to see if I can find a few more books to add to my pile of Portland-area hiking books.

I found two that have not only broadened my hiking and photographing options significantly (and I mean significantly), but are outstanding books overall by a widely respected and thorough Oregon Outdoorsman, William L. Sullivan, who has written roughly 16 books about Oregon.

The first book not only contains 100 hikes in detail, but also includes an additional 108 hikes in the area! It covers all the wildernesses surrounding Portland minus the Oregon Coast, which has so many hikes that it got its own book (below). This book covers the Mt. Hood area, the Mt. St. Helens area, the Portland Metropolitan area's numerous nature parks, the Columbia River Gorge, and the foothills of the Clackamas River.

100 Hikes in Oregon and Southwest Washington, third edition, by William L. Sullivan (2011)

The second book has the exact same format as the one above, only it covers all the hikes along the spectacular Oregon Coast. It covers the entire coast, so needless to say some of the hikes you'll find within its pages are a 4 hour or more drive from Portland. But there is so much coastline to explore, that I am eager to get as far down the coast as possible in this blog. The book contains 100 hikes in detail, as well as 45 additional hikes listed in the back.

100 Hikes / Travel Guide to Oregon Coast & Coast Range, third edition, by William L. Sullivan (2010)

The first guide to the Portland Area hikes that I picked up from Powell's, the book that sparked the origin of this blog, contained 60 hikes total in great detail.

However, these two books put together contain 353 hikes total, with 200 of these written up in great detail!! I have already read through both of these books, and needless to say I am absolutely pumped up about tackling these hikes. Many of them are closed in the winter due to snowfall, danger, closed roadways up to trailheads, etc. But there are a good chunk of them that I can and will complete before the winter ends and the remainder of them open to the public (some of them open in April, others not until June, typically depending on the altitude of the hike).

In other great news, my new Nikon D3000 arrived and is ready to go. Expect crisper, higher quality photos in future blogs. I have also recently realized that my point-and-shoot that I've been using has the ability to shoot short video clips. Expect some of those in future posts as well.

Good things are happening with Black Watch Sasquatch: better guide books, better camera, and the ability to record video clips! Not to mention the Sasquatch himself is getting into better shape and will be ready to blaze some serious long-distance and high-altitude trails once weather permits.

Vista House and Multnomah Falls - Columbia River Gorge

Yesterday my wife and I were eager to get out of the house despite the cold front that moved in this weekend. We went to Multnomah Falls via the Historic Columbia River Road, or Old Route 30. This has got to be one of the prettiest stretches of roadway this close to a major urban area. Sadly, due to the snow and my automobile's inefficiencies when faced with the elements, I could not pull off as often as I wanted to to take photos of this historic roadway. At the end of the winter, I promise that I shall return and complete the task, but for now, I snapped a few photos of the road.

In addition to the road you will see Vista House, a gorgeous old building on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was built in 1918 as a memorial to Oregon Pioneers. It is perched on top of a lookout point on the edge of the Columbia River Gorge. Automobiles traveling on interstate 84 way down below look tiny from up here, and the views are breathtaking. Throughout most of the year Vista House is packed with tourists and their cars, making it almost impossible to find a parking spot. But not today. Maybe it was the snow and frigid winds that kept most folks away.

There was no hiking done today, merely a quick out-of-the-car-look-see-and-back. My intention was to see Multnomah Falls in the winter, when the crowds weren't bad. I was mistaken. Crowds may not be as bad in winter as they are in the summer and autumn, but there was most certainly a crowd out today huddled around the bottom of the falls as well as, of course, the iconic bridge that gets one an even better glimpse of the falls.

At 620 feet, Multnomah Falls is the tallest falls in the state of Oregon and the second-tallest year-round waterfalls in the United States. You can see the falls from the interstate, and the falls itself is a very quick walk away from the parking lot and lodge. Multnomah Falls Lodge, itself a gorgeous historic building built in 1915, contains an info center, a pricey but excellent restaurant, a snack shop, a coffee stand, and a gift shop.

Here are a few photos from our day-trip. I will, of course, be returning one day soon to cover Multnomah Falls in its entirety, as well as provide many more photos of the Historic Columbia Gorge Roadway.

Historic Columbia Gorge Roadway

Historic Columbia Gorge Roadway

Historic Columbia Gorge Roadway

Historic Columbia Gorge Roadway - At Latourell Falls right off the road

Latourell Falls

Multnomah Falls Lodge, with the falls in the background

Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls and the bridge

Looking down into the second section of the falls from the bridge

Road up to Vista House

Vista House

In the not so frosted and frigid future, expect much better and many more photos of historic Vista House, the view from Vista House, Latourell Falls, the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, historic Mulnomah Falls Lodge, and of course of Mulnomah Falls itself.

Silver Falls State Park - Silverton, Oregon

In my last post I wrote that I intended to hit the Columbia River gorge to record some waterfalls. However, upon learning that Silver Falls State Park south of Portland was chuck full of waterfalls, I decided to save the gorge for another day (the gorge can get really cold on a windy winter day). This is one of the most rewarding and varied hikes I've ever taken in my life. The waterfalls are breathtaking, and the trail even ventures underneath a few of them as you will see in photos below.

For about half the trail you follow a creek through a beautiful mossy forest and hit waterfall after waterfall. For the other half of the trail you gently walk through a massive old-growth forest right alongside OR 214. This is a state park: there are big crowds (even in wet, muddy, early January I was surprised at how many people were out hiking this trail with me), lots of parking, picnic tables, a daily usage fee, a lodge with a cafe, a gift shop, even a swimming area. The trail is wide and easy going, you are never forced to climb over a fell tree or brave any river crossings. It is a family hike, in many regards, and many families I indeed came across.

But the scenery is beautiful!

The photo below is of the infamous South Falls, which is only about a 2 minute walk from the parking lot. It is massive and roaring loud! In the photo below, you can see people walking the trail that leads behind the falls (below also you'll see a photo taken from within a "cave" behind the falls). You'll notice how dwarfed the people are next to South Falls. The falls itself is very accessible by all, even those in a wheelchair.

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls

At 177 feet tall, South Falls is impressive. However, when you take into consideration the height of Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge at 620 feet, which will of course be covered very soon in this blog, you realize that Oregon only gets better and better. Hard to believe while standing in front of this waterfalls though. It is beautiful. And in the summer time, I would've stopped behind the falls for several minutes getting drenched in the spray and mist before continuing on to the other falls on the trail. Not so much in January with an electronic device in my hand...

Before the hike begins from South Falls, here is a look at the park as a whole, thanks to William Sullivan and Oregon.com:

Picture by William Sullivan at Oregon.com: http://www.oregon.com/Hike_Silver_Falls_State_Park

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls

Just about everything within eyesight of the falls is wet, and the sound of the falls is thunderous. This was my first time being able to walk behind a waterfall. It's freaking cool, trust me. And whereas South Falls has a guard rail to make the more timorous visitors feel safer, the Middle North Falls (covered below) has no such thing.

Unless you get here first thing in the morning or in the dead of winter, chances are extremely high that you will be sharing the myriad views of the falls with lots and lots of people jockeying for family photos, clogging the trail behind the falls, and, well, sort of lessening the experience of nature at her finest. I for one recommend seeing any chunk of Nature in as less a crowd as possible. Once you get a crowd of people something natural gets taken away from Nature and something almost synthetic takes its place. The roar of South Falls just wouldn't be the same alongside the conspicuous chatter of a group of high school kids or a father shouting instructions to his family on how to pose for next year's Christmas card photo. Too many times as a kid hiking with my family in Glacier National Park was a beautiful vista or the spotting of wildlife tainted due to crowds of people jockeying for position to get the perfect angle on the same view, as well as the expectation that you'll hurry up to get your fill of the view as quickly as possible so that others can enjoy it as well. It makes Nature feel unnatural, more like the line at a theme park than a waterfall in a woodland. I digress.

With that being said, if you, like me, want to soak things like South Falls in uninterrupted an with little interference, try to see it either first thing in the morning or in the dead of winter.

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls from behind the falls

Silver Falls State Park - South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - South Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - a tree stump converted into a seat along the trail

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Upon leaving South Falls you walk downstream alongside the South Fork of Silver Creek for quite a while. The forest in these parts is not very dense, so on a sunny day you'd likely get a considerable dose of sunlight at this point. The dense forest does not come until the walk back to your car, on the Rim Trail, which you'll see below. The walk along the creek is easy, with the chatter of a babbling creek throughout. Then, after walking down several sets of stairs, you reach the second waterfall, Lower South Falls, and the babbling creek turns into yet another roaring falls that you get to hike behind.

Silver Falls State Park - South Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

The Lower South Falls, though about half as tall as South Falls (93 feet compared to 177), seems about twice as wide. The hike you take to go behind the falls, seen in a photo below, is very narrow. This will make you both very excited and very wet, unless you run through it like you're shooting the gauntlet. This falls too, especially due to its width, feels massive!

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls behind the falls

Silver Falls State Park - Lower South Falls

Silver Falls State Park - North Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - North Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail and Ridge Trail junction

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - North Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail & North Fork of Silver Creek

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail bridge over the north fork

Silver Falls State Park - Lower North Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Double Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Canyon Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Drake Falls, the least eventful falls of the hike

Above, you will see three of the "least significant" falls of the hike, and by "least significant" I do not mean insignificant. Lower North Falls is a lot larger than it looks in the photo above. Those are massive tree trunks that have lodged themselves into the bottom of the falls. I wish it were possible to get closer to this falls, but alas it is not, probably for safety reasons. There are many little signs upstream from the falls warning hikers not to wade in the creek in this area, for fear of them being swept away and thrown over the edge of the falls. Trust me, even though Lower North Falls looks like a glorified natural water slide (at least this is what I thought while looking at it) I would not suggest taking that plunge.

Double Falls is tucked a short ways back from the main trail. In the summer, I assume it becomes a bit of a natural shower for sweaty hikers. One could very easily walk right up to the falls and stick your hand into it. This would be one of the best places throughout the state park to take your shoes off and wade for a while.

If you were to pick up Drake Falls and drop in on any trail in Oregon that does not contain a waterfall, it would probably be the highlight of the trail. However, amid all of its bigger brother waterfalls here in Silver Falls State Park, little Drake Falls deserves about a quick glance over the ledge of this man-made lookout deck and that's about it. There are bigger and better falls to stand and stare at, like Middle North Falls just a short walk past little old Drake.

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls trail behind the falls closed due to hazardous conditions

I am guessing that due to the wet ground, the amount of water coming off the falls thanks to heavy rains lately, and the lack of any guard rail led to the park rangers closing off the trail that led behind Middle North Falls, which is a wonderfully violent waterfall. Needless to say, this did not stop me from passing beyond the barricade, nor did it stop one of my fellow hikers/photographers captured in the distance on the right side of the photo above. Regarding the photo below, try to walk as close to the inside of this hike as possible. If you were to lose your footing, you would slide down very slippery earth into a large rocky coffee cup with little hope of getting out of it alive, especially given the weight and temperature of the water that will be pounding you into the bottom of said large rocky coffee cup. So, that being said, there IS a good reason why this trail is blocked off from time to time; and, if you like me venture past the barricade, by all means don't push your luck. There is a huge difference in being adventurous and being precarious.

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls trail behind the falls

Silver Falls State Park - Middle North Falls

Silver Falls State Park - bridge to Winter Falls

Silver Falls State Park - en route to Winter Falls

Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park - Winter Falls

Shortly after Middle North Falls you come to a bridge where you can either continue straight to North Falls or turn right, across the bridge to Winter Falls, and then back to your car parked near South Falls. This gives you about a 5 mile hike for the day. If you continue to North Falls, you're looking at more like 7 total miles for the day.

Having had little breakfast because of my impatience to hurry up and get to Silver Falls S.P., I was starting to feel damn hungery upon reaching the bridge, making the option of taking the short cut back to my car all the more appealing when I knew that a burger and an ice cold beer would be in my stomach that much sooner. My empty stomach overruled my desire to hike to North Falls, but I knew that I would be back to Silver Falls S.P., if not in the very near future. So I made a break for the short cut.

Winter Falls, like South Falls, is a very short walk away from a parking area / trail head right off of OR 214. You can get a great view of the falls, and there is a bench were you can take a break before your trek back to your car via Rim Trail, which is gorgeous.

Silver Falls State Park - Winter Falls bench

Silver Falls State Park - Winter Falls area

Upon coming up from Winter Falls into the parking area and trail head, you come out upon OR 214 and follow it all the way back to the South Falls parking area. The walk back, or, Rim Trail, is stunningly beautiful, even if OR 214 is never far away and the sound of the occasional car lends a contrasting element to the old-growth forest you're walking through. There is even a bike-path that parallels the foot-trail for much of the way. There was something about the way the sunlight was hitting the forest that made it feel surreal. Some of the trees you come across are massive and almost overwhelmingly majestic, especially this one gigantic two-headed monster of a tree.

OR 214 in the Silver Falls area

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail - by backpack next to a massive tree for comparison

Silver Falls State Park - Rim Trail

 Near the South Falls parking area you'll find a lodge and a gift shop. The lodge is quaint and comfortable on the inside, with a fire lit in the fireplace and a cafeteria that sells hot food and beverage (albeit, for a higher price than necessary). Sorry though, folks, no Oregon microbrews are sold here. In a perfect world, in a perfect world...

So as I was checking out the lodge I noticed a little old man wearing what appeared to be half Ranger uniform, half American Legion vest sitting behind a make-shift brochure table. I approached him and asked him if he was from around here. "Lived in Silverton all my life," he said in a stern and raspy old man voice. I asked: "Where could I get a good burger and a beer in town?" He perked up upon my mentioning the word beer. "Oh! Mac's Place downtown, across from the old theater. An old bar really, but my they have some good food!" Thanks, my friend. Mac's Place it is!

Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park - Lodge

Silver Falls State Park - Lodge

Downtown Silverton, Oregon is home to one of the greatest burger joints in the United States. If I see that old man who recommended I eat a burger at Mac's Place, I'm going to shake his hand and tell him thanks. I just ordered a straight-up cheeseburger with swiss and it was easily the best cheeseburger I've had west of the Mississippi. It was around $7 but honestly even better than the $12-14 gourmet burgers I've had at Father's Office and Umami Burger in Los Angeles. I had a pint of Fearless Scottish Ale, which unbeknownst to me is made right down the road in Estacada, Oregon. It reminded me of the beers I tasted over in Scotland and England- smooth, malty, slightly bitter, and absolutely delicious. It may be my new favorite beer made in Oregon (which I hesitate to proclaim given Oregon's unreal craft beer scene).

If you hike Silver Falls State Park and you find yourself hungry at the end of it all, you simply have to finish the day at Mac's Place. Just as I fell in love with the food and drink at the Zigzag Inn after my hike at Salmon River, so I did the same with Mac's Place today. A tradition has been born today. Ever time I hike Silver Falls I will be ending my day right here, with a burger and a beer.

Downtown Silverton, Oregon - Mac's Place

a pint of Fearless Scottish Ale at Mac's Place - Silverton, Oregon

quite possibly the best cheeseburger I've ever had & a Fearless Scottish Ale - Mac's Place - Silverton, Oregon

In the very near future, I will update this blog with photos of North Falls and the trail that leads to and from it from Winter Falls.

In other very good news, for those of you out there who really know your cameras, you may have noticed that the photos I've been taking up until this point have not been taken with the greatest quality of equipment. This is because up until now I have been using a point-and-click digital camera. You know, the kind of camera middle school kids take on field trips? The kind college students take with them to the bars on Thursday nights? Yeah, that kind. Well I'm proud to say that my investment into this blog is no long just an investment of time, energy, and TLC. I have purchased a new Nikon D3000 and a tripod, both of which will be accompanying me on my hikes henceforth. Expect vastly better, clearer, more colorful photos to come. Likewise, expect this blog entry and the ones that came before it to be re-done one day with the addition of the higher quality camera. I will likely name such a post "Silver Falls State Park Revisited."

Also, for a change of scenery, expect an Urban-Hike entry in the near future, where I will walk one of Portland's iconic and varied neighborhoods and try best to capture its unique feel in photo.


Silver Falls State Park, south of Portland, east of Salem, in the foothills of the Cascades.