Silver Falls — Trail of Ten Falls
34 stops· 1 hr 16 min· 7.8 mi· narrated by Ranger Quinn
Buy the self-guided tour now, or get it in the app.
- Welcome — Trail of Ten Falls
- Over the Falls
- South Falls
- The Forest Floor
- Into the Canyon
- Lower South Falls
- The Edible Forest
- Where the Forks Meet
A self-guided walking tour of the Trail of Ten Falls in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon — a 7.8-mile loop past ten waterfalls, four of which you walk behind, down the Canyon Trail and back along the Rim. Ranger Quinn guides on foot; Ranger Boone Merrick tells the canyon's old stories at the campfire stops.
Walking route · 34 stops. Live GPS playback and turn-by-turn pins are in the app.
What you'll see and hear
34 narrated stops along the way — waterfalls, overlooks, history, and Ranger Boone's campfire tales.
01🥾 Welcome — Trail of Ten Falls
Ten waterfalls in a single canyon loop, and four of them you walk clean behind, with the water falling in a curtain right in front of your face. That's the promise of the Trail of Ten Falls, a full seven-and-a-half-mi…
02🔥 Over the Falls
One summer afternoon in 1928, better than a thousand people packed shoulder to shoulder along this very rim, hats off, leaning out over the drop to watch a man go over South Falls in a homemade boat. His name was Al F…
Over the Falls guide →
03💧 South Falls
The headliner everybody drives out here to see drops 177 feet in one clean, unbroken ribbon, straight down with no tiers and no second thoughts into a deep green plunge pool below. South Falls leaves the ledge as a sm…
South Falls guide →
04🎧 The Forest Floor
Drop your eyes for a second. Not up, not out at the trail — straight down, at what you're walking on. The whole floor's gone green. That tall, plumey fern crowding both edges of the path, the one with the long fronds…
The Forest Floor guide →
05🎧 Into the Canyon
Notice the ground starting to drop away under your boots? The trail's tipping over the edge now, folding back on itself in switchbacks, carrying you down off the plateau and into the gorge. Take the corners easy. With…
Into the Canyon guide →
06💧 Lower South Falls
Down you go — and here she is, Lower South Falls, ninety-three feet of water pouring off the lip above you in one broad, unbroken sheet. The air's heavier here, wetter, the creek louder where the walls close in. And t…
Lower South Falls guide →
07🎧 The Edible Forest
Brush your hand along the trail's edge here and you're touching the pantry. All these shoulder-high shrubs crowding in on you — this layer feeds half the canyon. The big maple-shaped leaves with the soft fuzz? That's…
The Edible Forest guide →
08🎧 Where the Forks Meet
That braided rush under your boots just doubled — feel it in the sound. You're standing at the low point of the whole canyon, where Silver Creek finally puts itself back together. Two arms of the same water, joining r…
Where the Forks Meet guide →
09🎧 The Big Trees
Slow your feet a second and look up. The roar has dropped off here, the trail leveling between falls, and you're walking through the kind of forest that takes five hundred years to make. Those towering columns are Dou…
The Big Trees guide →
10🎧 Spring on the Forest Floor
Crouch down for a second. Lower than you think — knee-height, where the light filters down dim and green. That's where spring lives in this canyon, and you've timed it. Look for trillium first: three broad leaves, a s…
Spring on the Forest Floor guide →
11🔥 The First People
Stay put a minute in this stretch of deep timber. The trail's gone quiet, the falls behind you, the canyon walls leaning in green and wet, dripping a little even when it isn't raining. Boone Merrick's the name. Now lo…
The First People guide →
12🎧 Lichen & Clean Air
Reach up and touch one of those pale-green tufts dangling off the branch overhead. Go ahead. That's not a plant, and it isn't decay either. It's lichen, and it's two living things sharing one body. A fungus builds the…
Lichen & Clean Air guide →
13💧 Lower North Falls
Slow your boots here. The water dropping just ahead, off that low shelf, is Lower North Falls — thirty feet, and the first of a tight run of falls packed into a short stretch of the North Fork. Call it waterfall alley…
Lower North Falls guide →
14💧 Double Falls
Look up to the dead end of this little box canyon — there she is. Double Falls. One hundred and seventy-eight feet, top to bottom, which makes her the tallest waterfall in Silver Falls. Nothing else here comes close.…
Double Falls guide →
15💧 Drake Falls
Slow your feet here, because you could walk right past this one and never know it. There's a small wooden platform off to your side, and below it, threading down a dark step of rock, runs Drake Falls. Twenty-seven fee…
Drake Falls guide →
16🔥 The Man the Falls Was Named For
Don't you dare hurry past this little one. That skinny twenty-seven-foot ribbon you just walked by, the one that barely makes a sound against all its big shouting cousins, that's the falls a man's whole life is hung o…
The Man the Falls Was Named For guide →
17💧 Middle North Falls
Look at how thin she runs — Middle North Falls, one hundred and six feet of water sliding off the rim in a single clean ribbon. She's a tall one, narrow and graceful, fanning a little wider near the bottom where the w…
Middle North Falls guide →
18🔥 The Bird That Walks Underwater
Don't hurry past this stretch of creek — there's a neighbor here you'll never meet if you keep moving. They call me Ranger Boone. Stand still a minute, hush up, and watch the water. You're on the North Fork now, and…
The Bird That Walks Underwater guide →
19🎧 Life in the Creek
Crouch down at the edge here, where the North Fork goes glassy over gravel. Watch the slow water below that rock shelf — give it a breath. See that shadow holding steady against the current, nose pointed upstream? Tha…
Life in the Creek guide →
20💧 Twin Falls
And there's the pair — Twin Falls, thirty-one feet of North Fork Silver Creek coming down in two ribbons instead of one. The trick is that lump of rock right at the brink. The creek meets it, can't decide, and goes ar…
Twin Falls guide →
21🎧 The Forest's Voices
Ease your pace here, and let your ears do the walking for a minute. The creek's still down there, but layered over it is a forest full of voices, and this stretch climbing toward the next falls is the best place on th…
The Forest's Voices guide →
22🎧 The Hidden Web
Look down at that rotting log beside the trail. See those caps pushing up through the bark — gilled and pale, slick from last night's rain? Those are the mushrooms, and they're only the fruit. The real organism is und…
The Hidden Web guide →
23🎧 Who Else Lives Here
Slow your eyes down to the ground for a second. That bright yellow thing inching across the wet leaves, long as your finger and slick as a peeled banana? That's a banana slug, and he's busy turning the fallen forest i…
Who Else Lives Here guide →
24💧 North Falls
Look up, and there it is, filling the back wall of the amphitheater. North Falls, one hundred and thirty-six feet of North Fork water hurling itself off the rim into the bowl in front of you. And the path carries you…
North Falls guide →
25🎧 Spur to Upper North Falls
The trail splits here, and most folks bear left and start climbing for the rim. Don't, not yet. Take the short spur off to your right first. It runs just a few minutes out to Upper North Falls, the last one down at…
26💧 Upper North Falls
Round this last bend and the canyon opens up, tucked into the back of this box like a secret the creek's been keeping. Upper North Falls, sixty-five feet, the last waterfall down here in the canyon — the ninth of your…
Upper North Falls guide →
27🎧 Up on the Rim
Notice how the roar fell away behind you? You're on top of the world now — or at least on top of the canyon you just climbed out of. This is the rim. The trail goes flat and easy under your boots, no more switchbacks,…
28🔥 The Boys Who Built the Trail
Run your hand along the edge of one of these stone steps before you go on — go ahead, the cold of it will tell you something. Ranger Boone Merrick, and glad of your company up here on the rim. The trail goes easy and…
The Boys Who Built the Trail guide →
29🎧 Why It's So Green
Stop a second and hold your hand out, palm up. Feel that? Even when it isn't raining, the air here is doing something — heavy, cool, faintly wet against your skin. That's the whole secret of this place, and up here in…
Why It's So Green guide →
30💧 Winter Falls
Across the canyon, leaping off the far rim and dropping into the green of the gorge, that's Winter Falls — the tenth and last waterfall of your loop, and the only one you'll meet up here on the rim return. One hundred…
Winter Falls guide →
31🎧 Where the Water Goes
All day you've been listening to this water do the loudest thing it knows how to do — the roar you stood under, the mist on your face, drop after drop coming off the basalt. And every bit of it is headed somewhere, on…
Where the Water Goes guide →
32🎧 The Park That Almost Was
Trees and quiet now, the falls a long way behind you. This level, easy ground under your boots was nearly something else entirely. Back in the nineteen twenties and thirties, folks made a real push to turn this place…
The Park That Almost Was guide →
33🔥 The Town That Vanished
Look around you on this last stretch down toward the day-use. The second-growth Douglas-fir crowding the trail, the moss, the green that swallows everything whole. Folks here just call me Ranger Boone. And I want you…
The Town That Vanished guide →
34🥾 Back at the Trailhead
Ten waterfalls. Count them off if you want — South, the two Lowers, Double, Drake, Middle North, Twin, North, Upper North, Winter — and four of them you didn't just look at. You walked behind them. Not many trails on…
What you'll see
Tap any landmark for a visitor guide — what it is, where it is, and how to hear its story.
Good to know
- How long is the Silver Falls — Trail of Ten Falls tour?
- The tour has 34 stops over about 7.8 miles with roughly 1 hr 16 min of narrated audio. You set the pace — pause, linger, or skip ahead anytime.
- Do I need cell signal to use the tour?
- No. Download the tour before you go and it works completely offline — the audio plays by GPS even with no bars, which is exactly where most park tours lose signal.
- How does a self-guided audio tour work?
- You walk the route at your own pace and the Ranger Tales app plays the story for each stop automatically when you arrive, using your phone's location. No tapping, no reading while you walk. Ranger Quinn guides and Ranger Boone tells the campfire tales.
- Where does the Silver Falls — Trail of Ten Falls tour take place?
- Silver Falls State Park (Willamette Valley, Oregon). Oregon's crown-jewel state park — the Trail of Ten Falls threads a mossy canyon past ten waterfalls, four of which you can walk behind.
- How do I get the tour?
- Download the free Ranger Tales app from the App Store, then unlock this tour inside the app. The tour downloads to your phone so it's ready offline before you arrive.
- Can I cancel or get a refund?
- Change of mind? Full refund if you request it within 24 hours of purchase. If a verified technical issue prevents access, contact support within 7 days for a refund or credit. All requests are reviewed at our discretion and refunded to your original payment method.
Buy your self-guided tour
Pick a date and book online — checkout is secure, and your unlock code arrives by email. Works offline once it's in the app.
Silver Falls — Trail of Ten Falls — in your pocket
Download the app, unlock the tour, and let it walk with you. Works offline.
Buy the self-guided tour, or get it in the app.
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