I’ve been visiting Silver Falls State Park almost annually for over a decade. It’s my favorite place in Oregon.

A person in a yellow hat and green rain jacket stands on stairs lined with wood rails with a large waterfall in the background

While the Trail of Ten Falls hike is the main attraction for most people (I’ve hiked it three times), it’s closed to dogs, and consequently off limits for me on most of my trips to the park.

But that’s okay; the main trail’s popularity means the remaining 35 miles of backcountry trails in the park are largely vacant.

A stand of large conifer trees with ferns and shrubs in foreground and mist surrounding

A person dressed in a black jacket and leggings walks a dog through large conifer trees with understory on each side

A small cabin with a porch and green door sits among trees with a blue sky overhead

We’ve winter camped here for years, usually in one of the pet-friendly rustic cabins. The cabins lack a bathroom, kitchen, and other amenities, but they’re warm and quaint (there are some “deluxe” cabins with those amenities, but most of them prohibit pets, and they’re more competitive to book).

This year, we were back for a short trip for my birthday, and the park was reliably stunning. We’ve never stayed at the park in the autumn, and the fall foliage was breathtaking.

Autumnal leaves in yellow, green, and red sit on a green fern on a wooden table

My wife gifted me a plant press for my birthday this year, and I put it to immediate use, capturing ferns, vine maple, cascara, oxalis, and others.

Five leaves, those of maple, cascara, and oxalis, in various stages of autumnal color sit on a white paper surface

We cooked on a simple Coleman propane grill and directly over the campfire. To have a true camping experience—meaning with a campfire—in the west these days, one has to camp in the shoulder seasons or in winter, since climate change has resulted in perpetual, unrelenting wildfires in the summer. Campfires are banned for just about all of the summer now, and for good reason.1

Slices of steak and two eggs steaming in a cast iron pan on a green propane stove

Rare steak sits alongside a colorful salad with nuts, blue cheese crumbles, cranberries, and a bed of lettuce

We took leisurely hikes between four and nine miles each day, all in the park’s backcountry. In the afternoons, we read books and tended the campfire, even through intermittent rain showers.

A brown salamander walks on a bed of moss with the leaves of various plants around

This park is special. The combination of history, natural beauty, and recreational options is unmatched in Oregon, in my opinion. I’ll keep coming back to the “crown jewel” of the Oregon State Parks system.

A white ceramic mug with CCC Silver Falls State Park established 1933 on the side sits on top of a book titled Douglas Fir the story of the west's most remarkable tree

  1. We don’t camp in the summer anymore, as we abandoned our last attempt after a 5-hour drive because two wildfires were converging on our reserved campsite and the smoke was intolerable. We last camped in summer in 2020, almost exactly one month before the campground and everything around it was annihilated by the Labor Day wildfires (which also led to our evacuation of our home for a week). ↩