Woke up here:
A great campsite that was high up on the mountains near the Smith River.
During our Drive up high in the mountains to the caves, we hit 2000 miles since Page, AZ.
But then we got up higher and there are these marble caves are up on top! Usually I think of caves being in limestone, but this was marble. They were not discovered by the native people that lived in the Illinois valley area, but by a hunter out with his dog in 1874.
The cave tour took us on a 3/4 mile path through the caves, but it took 1.5 hours. Our guide, Dylan, told our group all about the history and nature of these unique caves. We saw cave popcorn, bacon, draperies, flow stone, moon milk, 3000 year old black bear bones, a 60ft deep Douglas Fir root, the river Styx, and the tunnels and steps built by the CCC in the 30's.
There were also bones of a jaguar found there that were 38,000 years old, and a grizzly bear skull 50,000 years old that was 20% larger than today's girzzlies.
Adrian's and I enjoyed talking about our other cave experience at Kartchner Caverns in So AZ where we took our families during Christmas a few years ago, and the movie about caves in So France that we watched called "cave of forgotten dreams". Awesome!
Pics will be uploaded soon!
Then we drove downs and at Wild River Brewery in Grants Pass. Very delicious pizza and beer. They even gave us tasters of their homemade sodas.
Orange cream
Ginger ale
Yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment