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Pat and Irma in front of the Lower South Falls at Silver Falls State Park.
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Monday, September 5 Pat and Irma picked us up at La Rosa's around 11 and drove us via the scenic route up to Corvallis.... |
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...including a not-to-be-missed stop at the fabled "Cowboy Church of Oregon".... |
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 ...and a walk through
a beautiful local garden. |
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The four of us went berry-picking and gathered a good load of juicy blackberries for dessert! Pat and Irma gave us the grand tour of Corvallis including a drive through the OSU campus, a visit to Pat's daughter Karen's house and a stroll along the Willamette River front. We had dinner at the Fox & Firkin where I was introduced to Deschutes Brewery's fabulous Black Butte Porter. Mmmmmm. |
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Tuesday, September 6 We headed out early to Silver Falls State Park, a few miles east of Salem. To learn more about this beautiful park, check out William Sullivan's excellent and informative "Hike to Silver Falls State Park" webpage. |
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The spectacular South Falls spills over a 15-million year old basalt cliff from a height of 177 feet into the pool below. The straight ledge behind the falls is the continuation of the trail built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935. The image below will give you a sense of scale. In it you can see a group of hikers who walked by shortly before the picture on the left was taken.
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Here's the South Falls as seen from the trail that runs behind it. |
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Hank and Barbara in front of the Lower South Falls, a dramatic 93-foot cascade. Notice the stone wall that runs behind the falls just above the lower cascades. It borders the trail. Hank zoomed in to take the picture (below, left) of Barbara from the same overlook where Pat had photographed the two of them (above). Below (right) shows the view from behind the falls. |
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We hiked the rest of the Canyon Trail and spent the rest of the afternoon with Pat and Irma seeing several small towns in the area including Silverton and Mt. Angel, home to a beautiful Benedictine Abbey. Had dinner at the fabulous Pine Cone Diner. As soon as we could all four agree on a flavor, we bought one of their homemade cherry pies to take back home to eat while doing our laundry! Nothing livens up doing laundry like good friends and yummy cherry pie!!! |
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