North Falls

Silver Falls State Park / Salem, Oregon, USA

About North Falls


Hiking Distance: 0.6 miles round trip
Suggested Time: 30 minutes

Date first visited: 2009-03-30
Date last visited: 2009-03-30

Waterfall Latitude: 44.88495
Waterfall Longitude: -122.62294

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

North Falls seemed to us to be one of the easier waterfalls to access in the Silver Falls State Park. This more or less double-barreled segmented waterfall plunged some 136ft over its overhanging lip, which made it pretty attractive. And speaking of overhanging lip, that meant that we were also able to go behind this waterfall. In this instance, the alcove was particularly deep. It was so deep that we even noticed some trees that have grown within the relative darkness of the alcove itself!

We said it was one of the easier waterfalls to access because we only had to hike roughly 0.3 miles from the car park (see directions below) and the falls. When we left our car, we followed the signs, which got us onto a trail junction beneath the road bridge adjacent to the car park. We turned left at this junction to continue our hike in the downstream direction as the trail pretty much hugged the river responsible for North Falls. Note that turning right at the fork would have led us to Upper North Falls.

The trail downstream descended as it momentarily went away from the watercourse, then switched back towards the falls. The trail then proceeded to go right behind the waterfall before continuing on as part of the Trail of Ten Falls towards Twin Falls a little under a mile further. We turned around at North Falls because we didn’t want to walk the extra mile to Twin Falls (and then add another mile on the return) as it turned out that its access made more sense from a different entry point onto the Trail of Ten Falls.

For a different perspective on the North Falls, we checked out the falls from a more distant roadside lookout. From here, we were able to see the falls in more of its context amidst lush surroundings, which was something we didn’t quite appreciate from the hiking trail to the waterfall’s backside.

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There is a dedicated car park near the park’s northern entrance (barely 14 miles from Silverton) along Hwy 214.

The roadside viewpoint of this waterfall is about a mile south of the North Falls trailhead or car park along Hwy 214. The roadside car park is nearby the Winter Falls car park.

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 of falls from an angle


Sweep from bottom to top from right behind the falls in a large alcove


View of the falls from the opposite side of the alcove

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Tagged with: silver falls, state park, salem, marion, oregon, waterfall, pacific northwest, silverton, behind



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