 Adventures involving caves are some of our favorites. For several years we had heard of the
Oregon Caves but didn't really know
anything about them, except that they were about 5 1/2 hours south west of our house, near the California border. We decided that on
Memorial Day, 2007 we were going to go and take a tour of the Oregon Caves.We left at the Official Adventuring Hour, 4:00am with two guest adventurers on board, Trevor and Leanna (Leanna is my big brother Ryan's Girlfriend). It was a long drive but when we got into the southern coastal mountains it was very pretty. All of the trees were in leaf and there were wildflowers blooming everywhere. The Caves aren't easy to find and the road to get there is very winding and narrow. Luckily we had the GPS so finding it wasn't to big a problem. Once there, we paid the fee and waited for our tour to start. We ended up being late for the start of the tour, so the tour guide made my dad do a dance in the caves for forgiveness. The caves and the formations in them are very fragile so it was very important that we didn't touch anything inside the caves. They even wanted us to try hard not to let our clothing touch any of the formations or even the walls. They  try really hard to keep the caves exactly the way they have always been so that we will always be able to enjoy them.
Several places in the caves are very cramped and you have to duck and squeeze through narrow passageways (my dad, The Fat Man, thought he might have trouble, but he didn't) and many of the formations in the caves are breathtaking. When the tour was over we had the choice to either go down the path back to the start or go up the path over the top of the caves and back down. This way was much longer, and we had to go up quite a bit, but what sort of adventure would it be if we took the easy way back? The longer hike was well worth it. There were several places with spectacular views of the Coast Range Mountains. On the way home we stopped for a late lunch at a really cool old diner, but I can't remember exactly where it was. I need to take better notes next time. All in all it was a GREAT adventure. Worth every minute of the 11 hours we spent in the car that day. |