...and back to the posts about Portland. On the same pre-conference vacation day that we visited the Tulip Festival in Woodburn, we went hiking in Silver Falls Park. From what I understand there are eleven different falls. While we didn't get to all of them, we saw quite a few.My favorite thing about this park is that it's so sneaky. I'm used to hiking up into large mountain ranges and thinking of waterfalls and such being atop the Wasatch range somewhere. Not here. You hike down, down, down, down into these massive ravines and then...surprise! You don't hear water, you don't see water, but you turn the corner and smack into massive waterfalls. It's magical.
I can't remember the name of my favorite fall, but I do remember how huge it is. You hike in behind it, through a little cave-overhang-thing. To look out through the rushing water is an incredible experience. It reminded me of hiking the waterfalls in Hawai'i: You're soaking wet, your shoes are muddy, your glasses fog up, your camera barely works in the spray and splatter, and it's beautiful. It also reminded me of the time I spent with my dad at Niagara Falls. I'm a water person and really turn on to those memories.
It's difficult to express in words the magnitude and the force of the water - what it's like to stand behind a rushing waterfall so huge. It's equally difficult to capture a photograph that really does it justice. You can at least see in this photo the trail that comes out the left side of the fall.
If you would like to (sort of) experience what it was like, watch this horrible-quality video taken on my digital camera. Super loud sound on your speakers will help. If nothing else, posting this video is simply an indulgence of my own memory, more so than an effective tool for you to join me.
