Silver Falls State Park

We spent last Saturday mostly doing chores at home and baking a pumpkin pie from scratch (ie not buying a can of pumpkin and a can of condensed milk but making them from the raw products). It was quite laborious and the result wasn't bad but not great either, probably not worth the 2 hours of work. After that we joined friends at their place and played games until late.
We woke up a bit late on Sunday but still decided to go to Silver Falls State Park. It is the largest park in Oregon and I had seen a few pretty pictures while looking for a place to go to. It is located east of Salem and it took us about 75 min to drive there. The weather was strangely cooperating and once we reached the small roads leading to the park we were enchanted with the rural landscape.
Once in the Park we headed for the mid-sized loop of 5.5 miles that goes around 8 of the 10 waterfalls that the canyon has to show.


We were welcomed by bright colored maple trees everywhere. It was gorgeous.


The first half of the hike was pretty slow as I was stopping every 2 minutes to take pictures in awe, M had planned for it and brought gloves and jacket to not get cold while waiting for me :).


One of the interesting things is that like many other Oregon Falls we have seen until now these have a very similar shape: the top layer is made of very solid basalt, often crystallized in hexagonal shape, then in the middle of the fall there is a soft layer that has been carved and looks like a pathway to go behind the falls (and most of them ended up hosting a trail), and the bottom is made of another layer of basalt. These falls are a good example of it:


The only one not following this pattern was the Drake Falls.


As you can see, we couldn't stop enjoying the pretty maple leaves. The rest of the pictures is available here and you can click the pictures for a larger version :).