September 1, 2011

September 1, 2011

Last night we drove to Ashland, OR. It has great summer weather, beautiful scenery, and is home to a Shakespeare festival. So after dinner we drove in to town and saw Love’s Labor Lost in an outdoor Shakespearean theater. The play was so-so but the actors were great.

From Ashland we drove west to Oregon Caves National Monument. The last ten miles was up a very windy cliff road. When we arrived we were immediately questioned again about bat disease and visiting eastern caves. We got a reprieve after saying we had been recently disinfected. We were then allowed to walk to the Visitor Center, where we bought tour tickets.

Given a choice, Aimee much prefers these group tours through lighted caves. I am not so impressed however. To me Oregon Caves is very ordinary and not much different than the other thousand caves throughout the country. Nevertheless it is a nice tour. I was randomly flashing my light on the various formations, when by accident I found the most interesting thing for me. A piece of historical graffiti dated 1877 from before it was named a national monument.

After hiking uphill on the cave tour, we return to the Visitor Center via a nice stroll thru the forest that gives us nice views of the valley we drove up.