Waterfalls, Weed, and Wild animals!

On Monday, our first stop was McArthur Burney Falls State Park.  The falls were majestic, falling 129 feet into a turquoise pool.  The spray hit our faces when he hiked down to the pool.  We also hiked a one and a half mile loop trail around the falls.  It was a wonderful experience.  We had a picnic lunch under the trees.  The pictures don’t do the falls justice.

View of Mt. Shasta from the road 

We headed north and drove through the town of Weed.  It was a cute little old logging town.  They like to play up the double entendre of their name.  The folks there were very friendly when we stopped.

Next we crossed the border into Oregon!  Our first stop was Ashland, where we stayed the night.  We drove through Lithia Park which was designed by the same man who designed Golden Gate Park.  We got our first dusting of snow that night.  Luckily we had stayed in a motel.

Snow on the car!

On Tuesday, Rebekah was excited to see snow fall for the first time.  I remembered my days in Illinois driving in it.  It was just flurries, thank goodness! 

We drove up to Jacksonville, where the whole town is a historic landmark.  We took the audio auto tour of the town and learned about the gold rush, the abundance of town saloons, the original banks, and other assorted buildings.  It was really interesting.  We enjoyed that a lot.

After Jacksonville we headed to Winston to see the famous Wildlife Safari.  There you drive through the park and see the wild animals as they roam free.  We walked through the little village first to see the smaller animals up close and fed some goats.  On the drive, we had to stop for animals on the road, and many were right up close to the car.  An emu even came up and pecked at the window!  I never knew they had red eyes before!  They had several cheetah enclosures. They are one of the few places that have a successful cheetah breeding program.  The bison and the elk were stunning to see up close.  The yaks we could hear munching loudly on the grass.  I would love to do this again!

Ostrich 

Bison  coming at us in the middle of the road!

Brown Bears 

Elk 

Make way for ducks! 

The Emu pecking at the window! 

Yaks eating 

We are loving the price of gas!  So far, we are paying less than $4 a gallon. 

On Wednesday, we drove to Brownsville to see the Historic Museum of Linn County.  It was really interesting.  They had the whole county history, including genealogies.  There was a complete covered wagon, one of 3 known that are left.  They also had many early collections from different shops all set up, like the barber shop, the bank, the theater, a doctor’s office, post office, blacksmith, and more.  The man volunteering there was originally from Long Beach! 

Beaver Skull 

Made with arrowheads, they had many different patterns 

From there we passed many Christmas tree farms on the way to Silver Falls State Park.  It is a beautiful park in the woods.  We rented a cabin and enjoyed reading tales from Edgar Allan Poe over a roaring fire. 

In the morning we hiked part of the Trail of Ten Falls winding along the river.  We walked behind the South Falls and stood in awe of the thundering water falling in front of us.  I didn’t like the part of the trail that felt like a cave with water dripping down, and we had to duck down to get through certain parts, but it was well worth it.  Later on the trail we came to over 180 steps down to the Lower South Falls which was a wider and shorter falls, but just as dramatic.  We were able to walk comfortably behind these falls, even though I was a little nervous!  I just can’t describe the feelings of standing behind a wall of water pouring down from above.  The water  sounds like an airplane taking off, it is a deafening roar.  This was a one of a kind experience.

We had a picnic lunch and drove to the Winter Falls area.  We were at the top of the falls and looked straight down at the water tumbling over the edge of the rocks to the pool below. I have never been on the edge at the top of a waterfall before. 

From there we drove into Portland and took a quick drive through downtown before settling in for the night.