Sunshine on Silver Falls

Spring has sprung. Our family celebrated this day among the first of sunny days and warmer temperatures by hiking at Silver Falls State Park. With the runoff still high from this winter's snow melt, the falls are spectacular this time of year. We began at the South Falls, hiking up the Rim Trail to Winter Falls. This took us past some gigantic conifers (mostly Douglas-fir) probably 300+ years old on a very kid friendly trail (wide with no steep drops). My son hiked the first 1/4 mile all by himself with his very own little pack on his back. The little REI pack has a whistle built into the chest clip which my son discovered soon after we bought it. He happily traipsed through the forest blowing his whistle and carrying the map (he was really into the map.. who knew?!) and telling oncoming hikers "Hi! Here we come!". When my son was ready to be packed for a while, my partner slung him into our Sherpani pack and we took the Winter Trail up to the Trail of Ten Falls. This took us past Winter Falls and Twin Falls. Here is a picture of my sweetheart and our son in front of Winter Falls. We continued up to the North Falls letting our son down to explore the cavernous trail behind the waterfall. There were lots of butterflies under the rock overhang, possible having cocooned there. We then dipped our hands into the river before hiking back down to the South Falls (and our car) following the Rim Trail all the way. Long stretches of the Rim Trail were kid friendly; not too many steep drops off the trail edge, lots of wooden bridges, running water, trees, snags, stumps, sap, ferns, mosses, lichen, shrubs, wildflowers (lots of wild trillium blooming), insects, etc. With so much to explore and examine this is a great overall hike with a little one. When our son tired, I carried him on my shoulders. It'll be a sad day when I can't whisk his slender little frame up like that anymore. We hiked 4 miles round trip. I carried him on my shoulders most of the way back down. This 4 mile trek took us about 4 hours and was great fun.