The good news this morning was that Jody's eye had completely recovered overnight, so other than having to wear her glasses for a day, the trip to Oregon Caves National Monument is on! This was an easy trip, just backtrack a couple of miles on the 101, and take US-199N for about 50 miles to Cave Junction, OR. The first few miles on US-199N took us through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and gave us our first real look at redwoods. The road was wonderful, with lots of twists and turns, and it was obvious that some of the curves were just to prevent cutting down a massive redwood, as the trees sometimes encroached slightly onto the road. The redwoods really are massive, much bigger than anything we had ever seen before.
     Once we passed through the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, we just passed into the Smith River recreational area, so the entire ride on US-199N to Cave Junction was both fun to ride and beautiful . As we followed US-199N back across into Oregon, it didn't take long to get to Cave Junction, where we turned onto OR-46/Caves Highway. Now, OR-46 is a REALLY fun road as it runs 20 miles up the side of the mountain to the Oregon Caves National Monument. According to the Sign at the Visitors Center, the elevation at Cave Junction is about 1500 ft, but the elevation at the Visitors Center is 4000 ft. So we actually climbed 2500 ft, mostly in the last 6 miles of the road. It was steep and windy, most of the way up was in second gear!
     When we got to the top, there was obviously a Mazda Miata club that was there as there were about a dozen Miatas in the parking lot. Luckily our cave tour missed that group, and we ended up on a tour with a bunch of older Harley riders from Sacramento. I meant the riders were old, the Harleys were new. There was also a couple about our age who just came back from a 4 day rafting and camping tour on the Rogue River. It was a fun group, and the cave was very interesting too . This was an odd cave, too as it had 546 stairs, but most were up. You actually came out of the cave at a higher elevation than you went in. Usually, caves with a lot of steps are downhill so that the steps are easier. This one was a workout. The tour was an hour and a half, and there was an escape entrance about 30 minutes in, before the real strenuous stuff in case you are having difficulty. There was actually a middle aged couple, younger than us who thought it was too hard and left the tour at the 30 minute mark. Not us!
     The ranger, Amber was young, and had only been giving tours for a couple of months, but she was knowledgeable and funny, and kept us going all the way through. This cave was actually quite wet, and had a creek running through under the entrance. But even with all the water, there were a lot of areas without formations. But it still looked awesome, and as always, caving is such fun.
     By the time we finished, it was time to head to the coffee shop, but it turned out they had a diner style restaurant, so we decided a little lunch would go well with the coffee . Tuna Melt for me, and Grilled Cheese for Jody, and they really hit the spot. As we sat down to lunch, the rafting couple we met on the tour ended up sitting next to us and we chatted for a bit. They were very nice, and he was from northern California, and she was from Savannah. We talked about our trip, and they had some suggestions for things to see. We haven't figured out whether it's just the people we meet on our travels are always so nice and friendly, or whether people in general are just nicer and friendlier than we are told to expect, but so far, almost everyone we've met has been very nice. They always wish us luck and safe travel on our trip.
     After our delicious lunch, it only seemed appropriate to work off some of the calories with a little hike. There were several that started at the Visitors Center, but the 1.3 mile No Name Trail appealed to us. So off we went. It was a great hike through the forest with a few stops along a mountain stream. The bulk of the path was on the side of the mountain, biut I've been getting used to the heights as we go along . The tough part about this hike iis that while the first half was easy and downhill, the second half was all uphill, and was very steep in spots, But we took a few breaks to catch our breath, or I should say, I took a few breaks to catch my breath, Jody seems to be a hiking machine, she never slows down!
     The ride back to Crescent City was just the reverse of the trip to Cave Junction. The ride down the mountain on OR-46 was just as much fun as the ride up. And the trip back on US-199S was just as beautiful as the ride north, except for about an hour we spent going from 38 miles away to 35 miles away. There was evidently an accident that closed the southbound lane, and we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for about an hour. Unfortunately, that was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and about 40 miles inland, so the temperature on the bike read 97 degrees. It was hot! We were planning on stopping at the Redwood Visitors Center back in Crescent City when we got back, but the traffic jam put us past 5:00 and the Visitors Center was closed . Looks like we'll check it out tomorrow.
     We were about 6 miles from the shore on US-199S when we could feel a little change in the temperature.   By the time we reached Crescent City, the temperature had dropped from 97 degrees to 70 degrees. Amazing! On the west coast, the beach is an entirely different concept than in Florida. For the most part, it never gets much above 70 at the beach, with 50's and 60's not uncommon. People come to the beach on the west coast to escape the heat, not to bake themselves in the sun like we do in Florida. No one swims in the Pacific, it's just too cold!
     Dinner tonight was at a local place called The Good Harvest Cafe. Burger for me, salmon for Jody, the salmon out here is really good. As someone from the east coast, I still have trouble getting my mind around fishing for salmon. Most of the good river fishing around here is for salmon, not the trout and bass we are used to in the east.
     Tomorrow we are off to see the redwoods. Tomorrow we will visit the National Park and State Parks as we head down to Eureka. Sunday, we will be checking out the Avenue of the Giants!

151.7 miles today
10,859.4 miles total

4.784 gallons today
259.143 gallons total