By James Day
The campground at Silver Falls State Park will be closed beginning Monday, Sept. 16 because of paving work and a restroom replacement project.
Crews will be reworking the pavement of the campground’s A Loop as well as a small slice of the B loop. In addition, the B Loop restroom will be replaced.
“It’s going to be great,” Silver Falls Ranger Chris Gilliand told Our Town.
The work is tentatively scheduled to continue through June 30, 2025, although Gilliand said that his expectation is that the work will be completed sooner than that.
Camping sites on either the A Loop or the B Loop will be unavailable during the work. Cabins 1-10 to the east of the A Loop will remain open, but the four cabins at the south end of the B Loop will be closed.
The closure affects only the campground. All other park facilities will remain open, including all trails, trailheads, day-use areas and South Falls Lodge.
Next year work will begin on adding a new campground and visitor center as part of the upgrade of facilities in the North Canyon area. State general obligation bonds are paying for the work at Silver Falls as well as work at seven other state parks. The total pricetag for all the projects is $50 million.
Gilliand was especially excited about the new restroom.
“That restroom is outdated, it’s from the ’70s,” Gilliand said. “It has this old style of shower with less privacy. The new one will have individual stalls, will be easier to manage and will be more ADA accessible.”
In addition to the paving and restroom work, one of the B Loop campsites will be converted for ADA use.
Gilliand said the paving work also will improve connectivity between the campground loop and a paved path that links the campground with day-use features such as the swimming area, South Falls and the South Falls Lodge.
“I agree, it’s a great path,” Gilliand said. “Part of the repaving project will make the connection from A-Loop to the highway crossing more obvious. We hope more and more visitors use the connection in the future. Some campers choose to drive the trailhead parking lots.”
