Day 61: Oregon Caves National Monument

When I was younger I went to Carlsbad Caverns and loved it, but it doesn't compare to the Oregon Caves for true experience of natural beauty underground! From the twists and turns of the 14 or so miles of road up the mountain to the Chateau that sits near the top of the mountain, this place was phenomenal!

We ate lunch at the diner before we took the 90+ minute hike through the caves.

This is Jennifer, our ranger/tour guide. She was a wealth of knowledge and alot of fun.

This cave is a National Monument set aside by President Taft in 1906.

Jennifer told us the story of the first known person to enter the cave and thus the one named as its founder, Elijah Davidson. (approximately 1874) But actually I think it was his dog, Bruno, who should get the credit. Elijah and Bruno were hunting and while Elijah was preparing the deer he had just shot to carry back to his camp, Bruno took off in the woods after something. Elijah stopped what he was doing to chase after his companion only to find that Bruno was following a bear right into a dark hole in the side of the mountain! He stood at the entrance calling for Bruno but the dog kept barking and the bear growling. But when he heard a yelp he charged into the dark cave, gun ready.

He used the matches he had in his pocket to see as he followed the sounds. In some places he had to crawl to get through. The matches illuminated some ghostly shapes along the walls of the cave.

This place was unlike anything Elijah had ever seen.

His matches burned downed to his fingertips so he pulled out another.

As he moved on, saw odd-looking white and tan rocks that glowed in the flickering light.

He continued like this until he realized he was down to the last of the matches, his only source of light. He turned and began to retrace his steps,

but it all looked so completely different from the other direction, that he wasn’t certain through which of the maze of passageways he had come. He found his foot and hand prints in some soft earth, but just as he began to follow them, the last of his matches died. He was engulfed in darkness. What to do???

Elijah heard a stream and he knew that the running water would lead him out of a cave. So he followed the sound to the stream then followed the stream out of the cave (3 hours later.) Note also that the average temperature inside the cave is 44 degrees which means the water is at least that cold, so not only was Elijah in the dark, and cold, but now he had to crawl under and through tunnels and feel his way out of the cave soaking wet!

Once out into the daylight, he said a little prayer of thanks. But what about Bruno? was he still in the cave?

Elijah went back to get the deer and took it to the cave entrance. He lay the carcass down and as he turned and began to head down the hill, he heard a familiar bark from behind him. Bruno ran down the slope, limping a bit on his left foreleg, but smiling his pleasure at seeing his human friend once again. The dog had some nasty cuts, but would heal in good time. For now, the two were just so glad to see one another that the hunter didn’t mind the face washing he got from his four-legged friend. They returned to camp.

The next morning Elijah took his buddies to the entrance of the cave. Elijah pointed in its direction. “You see that black spot? That’s my bear.” It had eaten a good chunk of the deer carcass and lay engorged on the ground in front of the black hole. Elijah then shot him and made a nice bear rug for his home.

Isn't that a great story???

Okay, as for us and our trip into the cave...we traversed up and down over 500 steps, most of which are steep and uneven and we had to duck under protruding rocks and such as we went. We were tired and thirsty when we exited the cave and we still had to walk down a steep path to the car! By the time we got home, we were both very sore! We exercised our bodies and our minds. We really learned alot on this trip!

One tid-bit I thought was cool was that the university and the park rangers are doing some research. They had buckets set up collecting and measuring the water coming from above ground into the cave. They do this to see if they need to do a controlled burn to relieve some of the underbrush because it uses up the water needed by the trees and the cave environment. If the water draining is low they will need to clear out some of the undergrowth so the roots of the trees don't push into the cave and destroy the "cave system."