Oregon Caves is a sort of magical place. The experience begins with a long winding, twisting, switchback laden drive up the mountain. It is a beautiful drive through the forest of Douglas Fir and Redwood trees that due to the nature of the road, you drive slowly taking in nature. Most of the forest here is old growth, this was made a NM in 1909 making this protected country for over 100 years. 

The cave has regular scheduled ranger led tours. Reservations are recommended and ther is a list of rules that must be adhered to in order to enter the cave. First off the cave is a constant 44 degrees so dress warm. There are restrictions on shoes due to bat fungal disease, basically if you have been in a cave in the last ten years, do not wear anything that you wore in that previous cave. Precautions apply to cameras and bags, etc. Check the NPS website for details. The tour is 90 minutes long and requires negotiating 500 steps. All this led Peg and I to skip the cave. 

We had coffe at the coffee shop and I took off walking trails. The forest is just wonderful and as the trail winds up the mountain the trees are majestic and so tall! The trees that fall across the trail are chain sawed out of the way and at one fallen tree I stopped to catch my breath. I counted the tree rings on this long dead tree at right around 200 years old when it died. There are living trees nearby that are easily twice the girth of this on dead tree, so I wonder how old some are?

We also discovered more wineries. I feel another wine tasting tour coming on.

Sjh

Oregon Caves NM