South Falls in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, USA

 South Falls in Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park is a great opportunity to see not only a series of beautiful waterfalls, but also one to see Oregon's splendid temperate rain forest. These incredibly lush dense woods would have likely garnered National Park status if not exploited by loggers in the late 1800s resulting in too many stumps marring the land around what was already recognized as special for the waterfalls' beauty alone. Roosevelt was undeterred and used Civilian Conservation Corps to turn back the tide on the damage done, developing a park without the status. Thankfully, it became a state park and was recently considered once again for National Park status in 2008 but was sadly turned down. Seeing pictures of what once was and spending some time in this stunning forest is a good way to come to understand that our planet is too special a place to continue to desecrate it.