Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
Oregon State Parks is offering free parking and free RV and tent camping June 1.
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) will waive day-use parking fees at Silver Falls State Park, Willamette Mission, the Mongold day-use area at Detroit Lake and Milo McIver State Park as well as the other 20-plus locations. The free camping offer statewide is subject to availability.
Milo McIver and Silver Falls are offering special events on free parks day.
At Milo McIver, you can join a park ranger at the interpretive shelter for a plant identification scavenger hunt, which runs from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Participants will learn about the different traits of plants and how to determine which species grow within the park. Visitors will spend approximately 20 to 30 minutes learning about edible fruits and prickly plants and then 30 minutes on the trail completing the scavenger hunt.
At Silver Falls State Park visitors can learn about the emerald ash borer and its threat to Oregon’s ash trees. Oregon State Parks and Oregon Department of Forestry staff will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to share information about this destructive pest at the discovery table in the stone circle in the South Falls day-use area.
Those interested in camping availability should check oregonstateparks.reserveamerica.com or visit first-come-first served sites: https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=reserve.first-come
