We don't really see the sunrise, to make that picture above I have to step out of the RV and climb the little hill in front of our door.
But after about 10 minutes the sun has traveled above and to the right of the barns and will peak through the trees to set the 2 ponds next to us aglow with it's morning light ..
 |
| So pretty! |
Now the weather had cleared a little (although that particular morning we woke up to a thick fog), we'd picked Tuesday to visit the little town of Silverton, and more specifically their Christmas market and lights show.
We'd come close to Silverton a couple of times in our travels to and From Salem and surroundings but never got to really visit, so we thought we'd 'kill two birds with one stone'.
Actually, we added another 'bird' to the list by taking the opportunity to pay the close-by Silver Falls State Park a visit as well!
This park we had seen before, but that was probably about 20 years ago during which we only saw the South Falls.
So, this time we planned to go and see the North and Winter Falls.
People call this park the “crown jewel” of the Oregon State Parks system and for good reason.
It is the largest state park in Oregon with an area of more than 9,000
acres, and it includes more than 24 miles of walking trails, 14 miles of
horse trails, and a 4-mile bike path.
Its 8.7-mile (14.0 km) Canyon Trail/Trail of Ten Falls, a
spectacular, nationally recognized hiking trail, runs along the banks of Silver Creek and by TEN waterfalls,
from which the park got its name.
The park's most visited waterfall is South Falls, a 177-foot (54 m) cascade, which as I mentioned we saw last time, but in July 2023 the North Rim Trail was opened which includes a viewpoint of the North Falls.
It's only one-mile in and out and easily
accessible with a width of 6 or more feet of compacted surface.
By the time we got to the park the thick morning fog was only just lifting but it actually added some interest and mystery to the short hike through the forest:
Due to the latest rainfalls the Fall was quite spectacular:
This more or less double-barreled segmented waterfall plunged and thundered some 136ft over its overhanging lip, which made it pretty awesome!
Driving towards Winter Falls, a little further down the road, we met two little does.
They weren't too impressed with us and kept on grazing the grass that is still growing thick and lush everywhere .. compliments of the recent rains.
At the Winter Falls trailhead a 0.7 mile hike brings you down to the valley floor some 100 feet below, through a beautiful grove of old, moss-covered oaks and pines:
Winter Falls gets its name from the fact that it only runs in the
winter. In reality, it runs year round, but in the summer and early
fall, it shrinks to a mere trickle.
It has the lowest volume
of the ten major waterfalls in the state park and is definitely at its
best in the winter or spring.
The water plunges for close to a hundred feet, then slides down the basalt wall to complete the 134 foot drop:
And what goes down must come up again ... or something like that .. you can see the trail was rather slippery but do-able.
All that hiking (well, not that much actually) had made us hungry for some lunch so our first order of business was to find some food.
We drove the 14 miles to the little town of Silverton and ended up in 'Mac's place':
Which turned out to be an excellent choice. It's is the oldest building on the Silverton National Historic Registry (1890) and is a fun, funky dive bar with great food.
We shared a plate of fries with bacon, blue-cheese and chipotle sauce:
As you can see, we didn't like it at all! 😂 Man, it was good!
And if that wasn't quite enough we managed to share one of these house-smoked BBQ pulled pork po-boy as well:
All of that was washed down with some cranberry and pear cider. We were stuffed!
We sat inside because unfortunately it was rather cold and wet outside, but this bar actually has a deck on the backside overlooking pebble-bottomed Silver Creek as it rolls through town.
A little further down the street there's even a cute covered pedestrian bridge over the creek. it's not old by any means but it's a nice place to watch the creek go by .
Another thing the town is well known for are all the murals, depicting scenes of the Silverton area heritage, industry, beauty and more.
The Murals are curated by the Silverton Mural Society, a local nonprofit, dedicated to preserving the town’s history through art ..
There's even one for Bobbie the Wonder Dog, a legend in his own
time who warmed the hearts of a nation:
This Scotch collie mix was lost
on a family trip from Oregon to Indiana in 1923 and walked all the way home, a six-month and almost 2,800-mile journey, to return to the people he loved!
Finally at 5 pm, last but not least, it was time to head to the Oregon Gardens for the Christmas market.
Due to overwhelming popularity of this event in previous years they're now trying to spread out the amount of people a little over the evening by selling tickets for a certain time-slot online.
We'd booked tickets for 5pm (at $15 pp). This didn't include parking but there was a shuttle that picked us up in town for free!
There's a heated and covered beer garden, food and craft vendors and pictures with Santa.
Or a visit with his counter-part, the Krampus, a devil figure from European Alpine folklore, that scares naughty children back onto the path of good behavior.
Those more adventurous will enjoy snow-less tubing. Yes, there's such a thing:
But the biggest attraction is to stroll through the garden's lighted walking paths featuring more than a million Christmas lights!
I didn't count them but yes, I'll say that's easily a million lights .. and than some!
Here's me, as a Christmas ornament ...
And James, still wearing his Texan cowboy hat whenever he gets a chance .. oh well, fashion isn't his forte .. but he's cute.
We spent about an hour walking through the gardens, checking out the boots, taking pictures and eating a piece of bread-pudding ... hey, that lunch was hours ago and we didn't have dessert yet!
All in all, a most delightful day, full of Christmas magic .. and food!
Talking about food, and desserts .. I started baking my yearly Christmas-cookie extravaganza .. or something like that.
First up, one of my all-time favorites 'Hungarian butter crescents':
This disk, cut in pizza-like slices and rolled up like croissants, which than become these:
Followed by a close second: Chocolate crinkle cookies ..
Made with that famously #$%@$^! sticky dough, but totally worth it! I gave them a festive cherry on top this year.
I used a different recipe this year, only using chocolate powder and omitting (melted) baking chocolate, but wasn't totally happy with it, so I'll revert to the old-and-tried one which does use this next time.
who knows what we'll do next week?!
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