Calendar

Past Activity

Canceled: Silver Falls

  • Start date: 05/03/2021

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 05/03/2021

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

The departure place for this hike is the parking lot just south of the fuel station at the Springfield Fred Meyer. This is a two part hike so please read the entire description. We'll start our hike from the South Falls day use area and from there we'll hike the entire 10 falls trail including side trips to see Winter Falls and Upper North Falls. For the second part of our trip we'll drive another 30 miles to the trailhead for Abiqua Falls just outside of Scotts Mills Oregon. Depending on road conditions and weather the hike to Abiqua Falls can be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Abiqua Falls is one of Oregon's most beautiful falls however it's on private property and the hike to it is an unmaintained scramble down a steep hillside. Please note that I'm rating this second half of our day "DIFFICULT". You're welcome to just do the moderate hike on the Silver Falls loop and skip the Abiqua Falls hike however arranging transportation will be up to you. After our hike to Abiqua Falls we'll head to Silverton for dinner before driving home. We'll meet at the Springfield Fred Meyer just south of the gas station. Note that there is a $5 per vehicle charge for parking at Silver Falls State Park.

  • Event Leader: Johnson Steven

  • Assistant Leader:

  • Event category: Trips

  • Area Type: Mountain

  • Departure Location: See Trip Description

  • Rating: Moderate

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 190

  • Season: 2021

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: Lunch, water, and essentials. Don't forget a raincoat.

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 8

  • Member Fees: 1

  • Elevation Gain: 950

  • Non-Member Fees: 5

  • Committee: Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

An early morning departure with 12 Obsidian members got us to the south parking lot of Silver Falls State Park and on the 8 mile loop trail before 9am. Our record dry spring didn't diminish the beauty of the 10 falls we viewed along the trail. Even tiny Frenchie Falls was active giving us a total of 11 waterfalls for our excursion through Silver Falls Park. We finished the loop by 1:30pm where four of our group headed back to Eugene and the remaining eight continued on to Abiqua Falls. After a 30 mile convoluted drive along country backroads, past the town of Scotts Mills, we still had to negotiate a very steep and rough 2 ½ mile dirt road to arrive at the trailhead. The Abiqua Falls area is owned by the Mt Angel Abbey and the trail is a ¼ mile scramble down a steep ravine to Abiqua creek then another ¼ mile fairly level walk upstream to the falls. Our hike to the falls was assisted by ropes placed along the steeper parts of the trail but sill involved crawling over and under logs and large rocks. Abiqua Falls is situated in a large amphitheater of hexagonal basalt columns making it one of Oregon's most unique and beautiful waterfalls. We followed-up our adventure with dinner at a restaurant in Salem where we were unanimous in our vote that Abiqua Falls was the most beautiful waterfall of the dozen we saw that day.

Members & Guests signed-up & waitlisted

  • Number of spots on trip: 13
  • Number of spots available: 0
No. Status Full name Phone Transportation Needed? Trip Fee # Can Take?
1 Signed-Up Johnson, Steven 541-520-2470 N 1
2 Signed-Up Cooney, Marguerite 541-600-0217 N 1
3 Signed-Up Meacham, Lynn 541-214-8827 N 1
4 Signed-Up Bean, Denise 541-953-6868 N 1
5 Signed-Up Bruns, Sharon 541-221-9102 N 5
6 Signed-Up Orsi, Barbara 541-515-9665 N 1
7 Signed-Up Krentz, Holger 541-868-7792 N 1
8 Signed-Up Carpenter, Kathie 541-505-2370 N 1
9 Signed-Up Winther, Paul 541-666-9956 N 1
10 Signed-Up Brown, Ben 214-930-6394 N 1
11 Signed-Up Sinnott, Randy 541-915-0234 N 1
12 Signed-Up Rolfe, Jorry 541-206-9501 N 1
13 Signed-Up Marsonette, Vern 541-600-5332 N 1
14 Signed-Up Randall, Kathy 541-844-5916 N 5
15 Signed-Up Gould, Whitney 510-368-8941 N 1