According to a T-shirt sold at the Silver Falls State Park gift shop, there's a lot you can learn from a waterfall.

The nearest redwood groves to the Rogue Valley hadn't exactly lost their charm. But having visited these sites along Highway 199 many times over the years, often with out-of-state visitors we were eager to impress, we longed for a new adventure among the towering trees.

Just a handful of miles from Oregon's southern border is a land of giants.