Silver Falls State Park Waterfalls Guide

Silver Falls State Park Waterfalls provide the waterfall lover a dream spot to experience at least ten major waterfalls in a serene and compact reserve.

Oddly enough, none of the waterfalls actually have the name “Silver Falls”.

However, we managed to go behind nearly half of the waterfalls in this state park, which makes for a more unique waterfalling experience than say the Columbia River Gorge.

In fact, Silver Falls State Park receives far fewer visitors than the very popular Columbia River Gorge further to the north.

That said, this place does see its share of visitors even if it might be an order of magnitude less.

We managed to experience all ten of the Silver Falls State Park Waterfalls by breaking up our visit into a series of three short day hikes.

While we could have done a much longer 7.2-mile loop trail to take in all the waterfalls (probably taking us 5 hours to complete), rain forced our hand during our visit on a rainy early Spring day.

Therefore, we broke up our self-tour into multiple short day hikes to reduce our exposure to the elements.

Below, we’ll break down how we managed to experience all of the waterfalls grouped together by the trailheads nearest to the named waterfalls.

Each waterfall we mention on this page has its own write-up, which delves deeper into the trail description as well as providing driving directions, a waterfall map, photographs, and videos.

South Falls Day-Use Area

The South Falls Day Use Area was the main center of Silver Falls State Park.

Its parking area sat towards the south end of Silver Falls State Park (the side closer to Salem).

Therefore, the waterfalls within reach of this section of the park assumed the names of South Falls and Lower South Falls.

There was also a bonus waterfall called Frenchie Falls, but it did not belong to neither the North Fork Silver Creek nor South Fork Silver Creek.

Therefore, we treated it like an incidental waterfall and didn’t do a write-up for it.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience the waterfalls by this trailhead, click on its corresponding reference link.

South Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.8 miles round-trip to the bottom
• Reference: South Falls page

Lower South Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 2.4 miles round-trip
• Reference: Lower South Falls page

North Falls Trailhead

The North Falls Trailhead sat by the Hwy 214 on the north side of Silver Falls State Park closest to Silverton.

The trailhead parking was next to a road bridge over the North Fork Silver Creek.

In a span of about about a mile round-trip of hiking, we were able to experience both the North Falls and the Upper North Falls.

If we were so inclined, we also could have extended the hike along the Rim Trail towards the North Falls Viewpoint.

That said, there was a roadside pullout for it so we didn’t need to do that hike to experience it.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience the waterfalls by this trailhead, click on its corresponding reference link.

North Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.6 miles round-trip
• Reference: North Falls page

Upper North Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 0.4 miles round-trip
• Reference: Upper North Falls page

Winter Falls Trailhead

The Winter Falls Trailhead sat by the Hwy 214 almost half-way between the South Falls Day Use Area and the North Falls Trailhead.

We used this trailhead to access the remaining six waterfalls in Silver Falls State Park.

So in a span of about 2.4 miles, we managed to visit the Winter Falls, Twin Falls, Middle North Falls, Double Falls, and Lower North Falls.

For more details, directions, photos, videos, maps, pointers, and all the different ways to experience the waterfalls by this trailhead, click on its corresponding reference link.

Winter Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: Almost roadside
• Reference: Winter Falls page

Twin Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 1.2 miles round-trip
• Reference: Twin Falls page

Middle North Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 1.4 miles round-trip
• Reference: Middle North Falls page

Drake Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 1.8 miles round-trip
• Reference: Drake Falls page

Double Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 2.4 miles round-trip
• Reference: Double Falls page

Lower North Falls

• Difficulty: Easy
• Length: About 2.2 miles round-trip
• Reference: Lower North Falls page