Oregon Caves was conveniently located in the Siskiyou Mountains on our way to Redwood National and State Parks. So we stopped and enjoyed the park for a day. We took a tour of the marble cave and two great hikes. We thought much of the area looked a lot like West Virginia, with the mountains and greenery.
The cave has many different formations. It also has low ceilings, narrow walkways, and 500+ stairs to go up and down. So if you go be ready to walk bent over for a bit and sideways for awhile, and then lots of uneven steps, with the pay-off being some great cave scenery. This cave is similar to, but also completely different from, all the others we’ve been to.
Cave bacon is one of the most awesome cave formations that we see. We have seen it in several caves in the national park system, the most spectacular being Jewel Cave in South Dakota. It is the result of the deposition of water-borne minerals traveling over the same route for millennia. Variations in rainfall, mineral content, and other environmental factors change the speed and mineral content of the water, which is what causes the delicious-looking bacon effect.
Stalagmites and stalactites have growth rings. The width and color of the rings are related to the climate outside the cave. When it is warmer and wetter they grow faster (and lighter in color), and when it is colder and drier they grow more slowly (and darker). Unlike trees, you cannot get age very accurately from these rings. This cave has a River Styx; we learned that all cave rivers are named River Styx, which has to do with a connection to the underworld.
The cave steps are carved out of the marble rock in the cave. Lots of shoes have polished the marble, causing it to look more like the sinks and counter tops we are used to seeing, rather than the plain brown.
Oregon Caves is a great park. The cave tour was fun and we still had enough energy to hike the Cliff Nature Trail and Old Growth Trail. Old growth forests are unusual for us and we really learned a lot about how they are different from second growth forests. The trees are many different species and ages. Some are fully mature and huge, and the others are all sizes in between. Old growth forests also have lots of large downed trees that provide a home for ferns, young trees, and lots of forest critters.
As in most of the places we’ve visited, we left so many adventures unexplored, and would like to return some day to experience more of it.