About Lower South Falls
Lower South Falls surprised us as it was every bit as attractive as its more famous upper counterpart.
Like the more well-known South Falls, the Lower South Falls featured a classically rectangular shape as it dropped 93ft.
I found its wide rectangular shape was quite reminiscent of Rainbow Falls in the Devil’s Postpile National Monument in the Eastern Sierras of our home state of California.
However, the Silver Falls State Park version also allowed us to walk behind the waterfall, which made for a rather unique experience for a waterfall with this kind of width and volume.
Come to think of it, almost half of Silver Falls State Park’s 10 main waterfalls had let us go behind them.
I guess that was kind of like the park’s M.O. (modus operandi), or at least the thing that made the waterfalls in this park stand out as more than just a collection of waterfalls in a particular reserve in the state of Oregon.
Experiencing Lower South Falls
In any case, we reached the Lower South Falls by hiking an additional 0.8 miles downstream from South Falls or about 1.2 miles from the South Falls parking lot.
From there, we could have continued along the Trail of Ten Falls for another 1.3 miles to Lower North Falls.
However, we opted instead to backtrack to the car park and drive to the other car parks to see the other falls on the trail without needing to walk to far (as well as backtrack).
In doing so, we probably saved about a mile or two of hiking in the process as far as the Lower South Falls was concerned.
So we’ll let you decide whether to do the eco-friendly option or not.
Authorities
Lower South Falls resides in Silver Falls State Park near Salem in Marion County, Oregon. It is administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
We started the hike to get to this falls from the same car park as for South Falls.
See that page for the driving directions.
For further geographical context, Portland was 42 miles (an hour drive) north of Silverton and 47 miles (also an hour drive) north of Salem.
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Sweep from bottom to top from switchbacks
Sweep from the bottom to top from the opposite side of the alcove behind the falls
Looking from left to right from directly behind the waterfall
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Lower South Falls February 28, 2023 7:51 pm - Lower South Falls at Silver Falls State Park is one of ten falls on the hiking trail loop. This is one of those, among others on the loop, where the trail proceeds rear of the falls and passes behind them presenting a veil of water before you. That is, in case you're asking, is there… ...Read MoreNearest Waterfalls
