Last Thursday my family ended our Fourth of July celebration with a gathering of friends high in Portland’s West Hills with a view out over the Tualatin Valley and an impressive array of official and unofficial fireworks displays. We began the day, however, enjoying a bit of the great outdoors on a beautiful, warm summer day.

Daughter Sarah, currently living in the Chicago area, arrived earlier in the week, and it was her idea for just the four of us to find a nice spot for a day hike on the Fourth. Her sister, Jenny, researched a few of the plethora of options we had within an hour’s drive or so of Portland and came up with Silver Falls State Park. The park boasts nearly a dozen waterfalls located in the lush forested foothills of the Cascade Mountains, about 20 miles east of the state capital, Salem.

I have to admit that even the drive to the park was a delight, not least because for the first time in years the four of us were in the car — girls in the back seat, Dad driving — just as we had been for so many family road trips. As we cruised down the Willamette Valley on smaller state routes linking farm towns, we enjoyed views of fields boasting blueberry bushes, broad swathes of colorful flowers, hop vines and grain and orchards of hazelnuts and fruit trees. Climbing up into the foothills, the road led us past numerous Christmas tree farms, quiet at this time of year but with acres of promising young evergreens.

While the park serves overnight campers, there is also an extensive day-use area which was already filling up with large groups and families preparing their holiday picnics. After consuming a quick lunch, we headed down the trail leading to the most-visited of the 10 falls in the park. Some 24 miles of walking trails link the falls together, but we chose to travel a loop of about three miles which linked the 177-foot South Falls with the shorter Lower South Falls, at 93 feet. These are two of the four falls in the park where the trail takes one behind the rushing waters (a cooling and welcome feature on this warm day).

Our brief interlude in the leafy forest and along the rushing waters was the perfect way for us to connect with the abundant beauty so close to the population centers of our state. More importantly, it provided a wonderful opportunity to enjoy some rare family time together.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor