Shop Smart. Shop S Mart.
And just down the road is speedy mart!
An old wayside from before horseless carriages.
Oregon Caves National Monument in the Snow
We headed up the narrow, winding road to the Oregon Caves National Monument. Not too long after leaving the valley, we ran into snow and ice on the road.
Lots of ice!
Welcome to the Oregon Caves National Monument!
Is that a chalet I spy through the trees and snow?
Why, yes it is!
The chalet at Oregon Caves National Monument spans over a small creek that occasionally can become torrential and destroy the bottom portion of the building.
The monument lodge is just upstream from the chalet.
The chalet is gorgeous. I bet it is an amazing place to stay during the season. In the winter, the place is closed up tight. There aren’t enough tourists to justify keeping it open.
Heather on the snow and ice near the lodge and chalet.
A pool of water fed by a stream emerging from an entrance to the cave system.
The lodge with dead trees standing sentinel behind. At some point in the not too distant past, it appears that a fire swept through the area but miraculously spared the lodge and chalet.
The flags are flying even in winter. Park staff obviously check on the buildings regularly even out of season. I look forward to visiting again when everything is open. The one nice thing about the winter is that admission is free!
Closed. Will return March 23, 2013.
Looking from the lodge down to the chalet.
The snow was laid in thick among the trees.
The lower entrance to the caves system. Note all of the icicles hanging around the entrance. If I were a bat living here, I would hibernate all winter. Brrr!
The gate to the caves was locked. Sometime in the near future I will come back when the park is fully open for a tour of the caves.
Heather at the entrance to the cave.
Standing inside the cave.
Icicles hanging from the moss.
We didn’t go all the way up the cliff nature trail. There were too many other things to see and do on our list for the day. The next time we are here, we will go up the trail for the view.
This is the upper exit to the caves.
The ice floes coming down from the rock above are pretty interesting.
Icicles waiting for the warm weather to return.
Somewhere out there are the snow-covered Siskiyous.
I was in a very precarious position when I took this photo.
Another view of the lodge.
The chalet in the early afternoon winter sun.
Walking back to our car past the lodge.
Driving down the mountain. This road is seriously twisty!
Escape from Takilma
We were sufficiently sketched out by what we saw driving into town that we decided to not stop and take pictures. The multitude of people watching us with strange looks on their faces, the many abnormally tall fences, the strange houses with walled off areas that can’t be seen over… it struck us as an extremely sketchy place.