Temperate Rain Forest

After visiting the Tulip Farm Festival we headed south and east (I think) to Silverton and the Silver Falls State Park.  This is the site of a temperate rainforest.  That is a term we all need to look up in the dictionary, I think!  Elder J has spoken of it several times.

We arrived there, paid our fee to park and then headed for the South Falls.  Fortunately I had my new Bi-Mart walking sticks so I walked confidently on the trail towards the falls.  At the top there was a very nice stone wall that we could look over.  Yikes!  Bad idea.  Vertigo just about got me...so I stepped back out of view of the cascade.

After the others had had their fill there we started down down down the trail to take pictures of the whole falls, and the brave people hiked on down and behind the falls.  I was not in that crowd.  I hate to be a chicken but the thought of falling and having to bring in a crane to get me back to the top was so repellant that I went back up to the top after taking a few pictures and waited for the crew to return.  In the meantime I was mistaken for a volunteer and asked about a large group of Russian and Slavic  tourists.  I am a volunteer, but not for the forest service.  Plus I had seen no Russian-speaking people as far as I knew.

South Falls from somewhere down the trail...

This picture is an example of what the trees and bushes look like in a temperate rainforest.  It is really so eerie looking.  Sister J. says if we had gone on the five-mile hike where we would have seen seven waterfalls, we would have found the foliage really truly amazing, and almost scary.  If I get into condition perhaps later on we can try it again.