OREGON CAVES NATIONAL MONUMENT

We are camped at the start of the 46 which leads to the caves, today we drove up the narrow, twisting mountain road to 4000ft where nestles the visitor center and a pretty Chateau. On the way up we had a slight problem, on every right hand bend the truck made a strange clanking noise! We made it to the top and Roy investigated by tapping the handbrakes shoes, which seemed to fix it.

THE CHATEAU

 The Marble Halls of Oregon as they are sometimes called were superb, an hour and half tour over a mile in length and going down 220 ft below the surface, they were narrow and more intimate than many we have visited, unspoiled but stunning. We saw bats flying around inside the caves.

VERY BLURRED BUT THESE BLACK DOTS ARE BATS, WE COULD NOT USE FLASH AND THEY WERE IN A HIDDEN BIT, WHILE WE WERE THERE SOME BATS WERE FLYING OVERHEAD

RANGER SCOTT

We spent the day up there as did a couple of hikes, one over the top of the mountain that contained the caves and the other to a Big Tree - Oregon's largest girth Douglas Fir with a circumference of over 41 ft. 
Back to the Chateau to follow in the footsteps of TelSal (our fabulous friends) and have a luxury cappuccino - they have some of the best ideas, missing you guys being over here even though we would not have met up. 

on top of the mountain that has the wonderful caves in it

inside the Chateau

I'm not sure if you know but if you click on one of the photos you can see them as a line of photos, if it makes them easy to see for you!