This article appears in print in the October 2019 issue, as part of the Fall Road Trips cover story. Click here to subscribe.

Long ago, I was a cub reporter at a TV station in Oregon when war broke out in the woods. The battles in the early 1990s were over something one side called “trees” and the other side called “timber,” and the epicenter of the action was the largest area west of Oregon’s Cascade Crest, which still had trees that existed when Christopher Columbus set sail and could be sawed into board feet. Look at an Oregon map east of Salem and you’ll see a piece of lowland national forest land without logging roads. That tells you who won.



We are headed on a meandering road trip to stupendous but lesser-known Oregon treasures. These are the secret magic forests of Oregon’s old families, stretching from waterfalls near Salem to the high-country slopes of Mount Jefferson. Start the adventure in Woodburn, where you can shake off that boring I-5 slog with fresh fish tacos on house-made tortillas at Luis’s Taqueria. From there, take Oregon Route 214 to Silver Falls State Park.



In any other part of the world, these 9,057 acres would be a national park, if only because of the otherworldly sight of lots of waterfalls rushing over basalt cliffs. More reasons to go: The logging scars that prevented national park status in 1926 have healed, and there are pockets of ancient forest and handsome Civilian Conservation Corps–constructed (CCC) log buildings. On the Trail of Ten Falls, hike past—or even under—shimmering 100-foot-tall waterfalls. While those who live nearby enjoy this park as a day trip, travelers from farther afield shouldn’t miss an overnight stay at Silver Falls Lodge and Conference Center.

Activities at Silver Falls Lodge include horseback riding, before retiring for the night in one of these rustic cabins. Photo by Holland Studios & Erica Ann Photography



We like the Middle-earth enclave of older shingled huts, dwarfed by gnarled Douglas firs, in the Upper Smith Creek section of cabins. There are fancier cabins as well, located nearby on Lower Smith Creek in a big grassy meadow; they include ping pong tables, cornhole and a good dining hall in the vicinity. At the South Falls Day-use Area, don’t miss the short film on the history of the park, which stars the photographer who saved this paradise and the kook/daredevil who marketed it by plummeting 177 feet over South Falls in a torpedo-shaped boat. Spoiler alert: He broke a lot of bones, but ended up alive and smiling in the hospital.