Oregon waterfalls and the Columbia River Gorge

We got to see some gorgeous scenery as we drove north through Oregon. We went east a bit since we wanted to go to Silver Falls State Park, and we got to see Mt Hood and a lot of Christmas tree farms. I learned that Mt Hood is not the mountain I got views of from Portland and Mt Ranier. That was Mt St. Helen's. You can tell by the flattened top from its 1980 eruption. Mt Hood still has its slanted shape like Mt Ranier.

Silver Falls state park is really beautiful, and I'd like to go back to it in the spring when the waterfalls are at their fullest. This is South Falls, the first one you see as you come in. It's the start of the 9 mile hike that will take you through 10 waterfalls. We want to do that hike someday. There's a trail that will take you behind the falls, which is really cool to see the falls from so many different angles.

I have to admit it was a bit scary under all that rock. I kept picturing it would come falling down on me at any minute and crush me forever. We continued hiking towards the bottom of the falls. We would have liked to continue the hike, but we would have needed all day, and it was going to be dark soon. The only other waterfall we could see was North Falls. Supposedly you can walk around that one too, but we could not find the path. The arrows kept pointing us back to a parking lot and we didn't know where to go from there. We continued north and luckily arrived at the Columbia River Gorge just in time to for sunset. Next we hiked down to Bridal Falls. Though I've been to Multnomah Falls multiple times, and Bridal Falls is only a few miles away, I'd never been to Bridal Falls.

I was missing out. It was gorgeous! As we hiked back up we saw some even prettier views of the sunset over the gorge. And just before we drove home we stopped at Multnomah Falls. I must say it's stunningly beautiful at night. I thought it was even prettier than when I've seen it on a sunny day. But it's difficult for our camera to take night pictures, especially without a tripod. It took Oscar several tries, but eventually he was able to hold still for 15 seconds for the shutter speed to be able to capture the photo.