After spending the night at a roadside turnout we find in our Parks book the Oregon caves National Monument. It was 17 miles off the road on twisty turney drive up into the mountain to over 4000 ft. The caves are in the mountain and from the opening you climb up 500 stairs and then begin the down and up again for about 1 1/2 mile walk, many places you need to crab walk to protect your head and turn sideways to get through.
There is lots of water in the caves and from time to time a ice cold drop falls on your neck. There are several different types of stone and one marble chunk is over 1080 feet long.
There are thousands of side caverns like this one that range from a few feet long to many hundreds of feet only to dead end. The caves are a constant 54*F and damp, we were happy to get back in the sunshine and head back the long brake ride down the mountain.
We cross into California just before two o'clock and arrive at the National Redwood
Forest home of the giant redwoods, and, wow, are they ever big.
Some of them are around 300 feet high and 40+ feet in diameter, Most are really straight and no branches for 80-100 feet. Sure is lots of good lumber (oops sorry, they're protected.) The one Diane is standing by is called corkscrew tree, somehow 2-300 years ago 3 small trees got twisted together. There are numerous tree that have been partially hollowed out and used as living space in the past.
A few miles down the road we find the "DRIVE THRU TREE" It was too small a opening for trekkie but the guy behind us did just find.
Along the California coast we see many sights like the one below.
For mile after mile we parallel the ocean and a never ending vista of sea, sky, sand and rocks. The drive is very slow going with twist and turns up and down hills and the need to stop and enjoy the view often.
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