Oregon Caves

Oregon Caves National Monument - August 29, 2004

Oregon Caves National Monument is about 2-3 hours northeast of Redwoods National Park. After spending a somewhat soggy night at the Jedidiah Smith State Park campground to the north of the park, I awoke to see the sun breaking through the mist. Sounds rather poetic, I know. But I hadn't seen the sun the day before, and I was bit miffed that I was leaving when the good weather was finally showing up.

I drove north up scenic US highway 199 into Oregon - beautiful drive! After another 30 minutes or so once I was in the state, I made a right turn at Cave Junction and drove the 20 miles out to the Monument. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but what I found was more misty weather (it was to rain later that evening at Crater Lake after I had gone to sleep and pretty much soak everything!) and a smaller version of Carlsbad Caverns. This is not to slight Oregon Caves in any way but the Caverns are larger and have more "trails", for lack of a better word.

I bought my ticket at the visitor center and waited for about 15 minutes or so for my tour to start. Unlike the Caverns, one cannot just walk into the Caves; you must go on a tour with a Park's Service (ie, Ranger) escort. If I remember correctly, my group had about 20-25 people in it.

I fell back to the rear of the group because I wanted to take pictures. Unfortunately, what looks really amazing and cool in the Caves does not translate well to film, at least for me. I ended up following a couple who were having difficulty keeping up with the main group; eventually the Ranger had them follow immediately behind him and they did much better.

The tour itself lasted about an hour to an hour and a half. It was cool and damp and, even though we were told not to touch the formations, people just have to do it. I don't understand why other don't understand the words "don't touch" or if they think it does not apply to them.

As I write this, it is almost 2 years after the fact. Aside from what I have written above, I don't really remember too much more about the tour. I know there was an optional climb up a somewhat tall ladder (a challenge for those scared of heights - see me raising my hand here) and that there were several pools of water. I don't even know how much we walked on the tour. I do know that I spent about 2 hours or so at the Monument before heading off to my destination for the night, Crater Lake. (I got a bit lost on the way to Crater Lake but did end up getting there just fine.)

Oregon Caves