The Silver Falls Perimeter Loop is a route that explores the many hiking trails around Silver Falls. The vast majority of hikers who go to the park converge on the Trail of Ten Falls, which, while admittedly beautiful does not provide anything like the same experience as its backcountry trail system. While the backcountry trails don't have anything as striking as the Falls, they do provide solitude, old growth, and a sense of backcountry that isn't found regularly inside the valley. I recommend starting the loop (to be clear, it's a loop, so you can start anywhere on the route) at South Falls trailhead, particularly if you don't have a state parks pass, in which case you can buy one there. I also recommend this on a week day, early in the morning, since the falls trail can quickly become miserable in its crowds.
I originally hiked through the dark when passing the South Falls area, which was great since there was nobody on the trails, but it was impossible to navigate through the South Falls Campground without AllTrails, and my dad and I ended up just walking on the road. I have since placed the GPX to what I think will be the best route, but I think that to avoid 60% of FKTs being flagged for deviation, treat this as an open course from (going Clockwise as though from 214 trailhead) where you hit the Nature Trail south of South Falls Campground, all the way to overlook immediately east of South Falls. Preferably you would avoid the cave behind the falls to avoid an incidence of a haywire GPS. After that, the rest of the route is closed loop, and navigation is fairly easy as long as you have the route.
Now that I've covered the navigational issues, this is how the actual trail is. The Trail of Ten Falls is extremely popular, and if you have been on it during a holiday weekend and survived, you will understand how crowded it is. Its actually quite pleasant in early morning on a weekday though, and although it's fairly rocky, you can make reasonable time jogging or fast walking along. The waterfalls are all nice, and I'm sure you can find plenty of pictures of them online. (I made the mistake of not taking pictures when I hiked this in October) After the Falls, you quickly emerge out of the valley, and leave the road noise far behind. 1 mile past the trailhead, you take a left away from the Roemer's Trail, which is a nice mountain bike trail that is often used in a similar loop to this, and then it's several miles of cruising along reasonably graded, incredibly smooth trail. Because this trail is seldom used, and importantly, closed to horses, it has some truly excellent tread. As the loop continues, you get glimpses out of the park and out over some unsightly clear cuts to the east. My favorite section of the loop is on Catamount Backside, when you get a nice section of hemlock forest that again, feels surprisingly remote. A quick stretch through a clear cut, and then you have an 11-mile descent back to South Falls. It's got a lot of flat stretches and short climbs, but it is primarily descent from there. Upper Catamount and Catamount Trail are really popular with Mountain Bikers, so just keep an ear out for whizzing freehubs. 214 trail has a good amount of Equestrian traffic, but its only 1.3 miles. After that the hard part is navigation, and if its past 10, avoiding cars.
When I hiked this in October, the mileage came out to somewhere around 19 miles, but be warned that hiking behind the waterfalls can skew the GPS. I never recommend stopping behind one of the falls if you are trying to track for something like this, and check once you're past the last cave that your tracker hasn't been thrown off too much.
Overall, this is quite a pleasant route, not too steep except for the climb and descent around South silver Creek, and you can make good time. I envision this as a good spring training trail, since in an average year snow its pretty light snowpack on the Perimeter Trail, and in the spring and summer there are numerous small creeks that start inside the park and looked clean enough to filter. Always filter above the trail though, especially on sections of trail you have to share with horses. This park can have bad bugs during the summer, including yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets, so be prepared for the possibility of stings and bites.
