Dunes and Dinos - Sawyer, Michigan 7.30.24

 Oregon Caves National Monument – 6.22.21

We had intended to get as far as Eugene, OR on Tuesday evening, but we had trouble finding a camping spot.  When we did find it, it was to the east, off the main freeway past Eugene, and once again we were driving a mountain road in the dark to the last campsite available.  I would not say it was pitch dark, as the moon was up and very bright.  This was a campground where the reservations could be made online and for once I had service for long enough to do it, so we did not talk to or see anyone until the following morning, when we checked in for the purpose of checking out.  We then had to backtrack north to Eugene before going south again.

At Grant’s Pass, once again we were lucky to find a campsite.  It was in the mid-90s and looking at the weather forecast, in the 100s over the weekend, we decided we might want to have the AC in the truck looked at.  We had known leaving Chicago that there was a leak but did not want to take the time to get it fixed.  However, we found a Toyota dealership and though it took the morning, we had work done on the AC and it is now functioning.  It may require follow-up work later on but we feel a bit more secure about it.  It’s always a blessing to find repairs can be made in real time, on the road, and actually it was hardly an inconvenience at all, besides which the repairman really seemed knowledgeable.  At the dealership, while using the restroom, I discovered the water fountains were actually working!  I haven’t seen a functioning water fountain since March of 2020 – they’ve all been disconnected because of the pandemic.  Maybe it seems silly, but this meant a lot to me.  I took a good long drink, just because I could. 

While staying at Grant’s Pass, we met a couple who were traveling to a sort of convention of owners of their type of RV (Lance).  They said when it gets very hot like it’s going to be on the weekend, the people at the convention get together but talk a lot on their phones from inside their rigs, since it’s too hot to be outside!  We talked for a while about various places we had traveled, out West and to Canada and Alaska.

The plan was to see if we could get a tour of Oregon Caves National Park so we drove to the visitors’ center in Cave Junction.  Tickets were sold out and we were told to come back the next morning.  Since we had the afternoon to fill, we headed for 8 Dollar Mountain, where there was a botanical boardwalk trail.  The way to the trail had a sign, “No trailers.”  So, okay, we couldn’t go on that trail, so we would turn around.  Then we discovered we were in a space too small to turn the truck and trailer around in.  It was a tense few minutes before LCR flagged down a kayaker who told us there was space along the road past a gate up ahead (which had looked too narrow to us) and she would guide us.  We finally did find a turnoff large enough and headed back with relief.  At the trailhead we found a woman in a stickshift car who had decided not to try the uphill road to the boardwalk but had gotten a back wheel into a hole and could not get out.  She had been there for some time and had been piling rocks under the wheel but it wasn’t working.  LCR guided her as to the way to apply power to get out and she was very grateful.  We knew at that moment why we had come to this place, even though we could not see the trail as we had intended.

Everything closes up very early around here – as in, 3 or 4 pm, so we just packed it in early.  With the door propped open, fan running and windows and curtains open, it is not unpleasant to stay in the trailer even in these temperatures (upper 90s), and there was good internet.

Oregon Caves National Monument is still under some COVID restrictions and we had been told at the Visitors’ Center to come early in the morning to get tickets as there were very few available and they would sell out quickly.  This turned out to be no exaggeration.  We were there shortly after 7:30 and there was already a line.  The Visitors’ Center opened at 8:30 and tickets sold out before 9 a.m.  There were few tickets due to the small tour groups that were allowed, and also they were short-staffed, so some people were not able to get tickets at all.  We got a slot for the 3 pm tour, which was what we wanted.  Sounds ridiculous to wait in line for an hour, but it wasn’t unpleasant – the heat doesn’t really hit here until noon, and we sat on wooden benches and chatted with other visitors.  Back at the campsite, we worked and napped until it was time to leave.

The actual cave is 20 miles up a mountain from the Visitors’ Center.  The instructions we were given said to allow an hour of driving time to the cave.  Once again, no exaggeration, and it was a very twisty mountain road with hairpin turns and switchbacks and no guardrails.  We had disconnected as the road was not recommended for trailers. 

Before the tour there was a brief talk with safety and other instructions.  Due to a highly contagious fungus that kills bats, anyone who had been inside a cave or mine in the past 15 years was instructed to wear clothes they had not worn in those places, and to clean shoes with gloves and peroxide wipes.  In the past we have been asked to step into a tub of cleaning solution, but we had never been told to wear different clothes before.  Our group comprised only five plus the ranger and LCR and I had to make the others wait during this process. 

We went from 55 degrees in the early morning to 82 near the cave entrance, to 44 degrees deep in the cave itself.  We had been informed and were dressed for it, but still the blast of cold air as we entered was a slight shock.  It is the coldest cave I’ve ever been to, but the walking is so strenuous that the cold doesn’t seem that bad after a few minutes.  Having visited a number of caves, I would say this was the most difficult cave tour I’ve ever taken.  With hundreds of steps, some stony and uneven as well as steel staircases, dark areas where there are nearly invisible puddles, narrow passages, and low overhangs you had to sort of crouch through – the mile-long tour seemed like a much longer walk.  About halfway through there was an alternative exit that a visitor could take if they wanted to opt out of the rest of the tour.  LCR took this option, as his problems with depth perception made navigating the uneven terrain difficult, particularly in semi-darkness.   He sometimes uses a cane to help gauge depth but on this tour, canes (and my walking poles) were not allowed.  We learned later from the rangers that if we had mentioned this, they had a special cane he could have used, with a rubber ball on the end.  It seems the problem with canes is that some have points that might chip the cave formations.    

Every cave is different.  This one is made of marble, harder than most cave rock and therefore more difficult to blast through.  Some blasting was done in the ‘30s when the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) worked during the Depression, to make the cave more accessible for tours.  The cave is not pretty in the sense of beautiful formations and fantastic colors, but definitely majestic and interesting to explore.  Unusual for caves in this area, there is a rushing creek inside the cave.  Deep inside, though, there was one area they call the “dry room,” where you could not only not hear the creek, but not one drip of water.  I could definitely feel the strain of climbing stairs and inclined paths in my knees and my back, especially the end of the tour, which featured 400 feet of a sort of stone ramp with a 16% upward pitch.  I was pretty proud of myself for making it through.  The tour took 90 minutes and by the time I got back to LCR and the car, they were already taking down the flag at the end of the day.

We kept seeing signs for the Illinois River in this area, and wondered.  We learned the river, which is a tributary of the Rogue River, was named by three brothers from Illinois who came west to search for gold.  When they found gold in the river, they named it after their home state (though it undoubtedly had a name before, perhaps more than one).  The river is known for difficult and barely accessible rapids and abundant wild salmon and trout.  There is still gold mining going on, but with many disputes as to who owns various pieces of land and who has mineral rights.  

One thing we never found out is why it is called Oregon Caves National Monument, given that there appears to be one cave, and in all the literature and on the website, “cave” is always singular. 

Heading for the California coast next.