Yesterday we drove up 101 from Mendocino to the Oregon Caves Chateau, where we had a splendid dinner in one of the wonderful buildings built by the WPA. (Pity that the current financial crisis is unlikely to generate anything like this!)

Dinner at the Oregon Caves Chateau

Today we toured the caves themselves: 500 stairs down and up, and worth every one of them. They were discovered in 1874 by Elijah Davidson, whose dog chased a bear into one of the openings. He waited, hoping the dog would re-emerge, but when he heard the dog yelp in pain, he followed it until he ran out of matches and had to grope his way along the stream in total darkness until he found his way out. Several hours later, his dog joined him, and the next day, the bear emerged, only to end up as a rug in Elijah’s cabin. Deep within the caves we saw the bones of a bear that lost its way in the caves about 3000 years ago. Deeper yet, in an area not accessible to the public, explorers found the bones of a grizzly bear dated at over 30,000 years old!

In the Oregon Caves

Now we’re on our way to Lake Oswego, near Portland.