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| A HUGE beetle we found. It made quite a racket when it flew. |
Falls Creek Falls in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the first places we hiked after moving to Oregon. We thought it was gorgeous, and decided to return. Any time of year it's truly spectacular. Trail #152A follows the creek to the waterfall, so you are accompanied by the music of the water. There are two bridges to cross on the way to the main falls. In the summer, the cascades that roll under the second bridge have dried up completely, and all of the trail is dry. This time, we also explored Trail #152, which rises high above the falls to sweeping vistas of the forest and valley. There were also far more wildflowers and gobs of oozing yellow slime mold to be spotted amidst the trees.
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| A variety of wintergreen, possibly white-veined. |
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| Slime mold was oozing all over the fallen logs on trail #152! Slime mold is a protist; not a plant, animal, or fungi. And it moves. |
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| Prince's Pine (a wintergreen). |
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| Indian Pipe or Ghost Plant, a true plant that does not photosynthesize, but gets its nutrition as a parasite, feeding on fungi that in turn feed on the roots of conifers. They are abundant on trail #152. |
Falls Creek Falls in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the first places we hiked after moving to Oregon. We thought it was gorgeous, and decided to return. Any time of year it's truly spectacular. Trail #152A follows the creek to the waterfall, so you are accompanied by the music of the water. There are two bridges to cross on the way to the main falls. In the summer, the cascades that roll under the second bridge have dried up completely, and all of the trail is dry. This time, we also explored Trail #152, which rises high above the falls to sweeping vistas of the forest and valley. There were also far more wildflowers and gobs of oozing yellow slime mold to be spotted amidst the trees. 
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