The Redwoods 
Thursday, October 11, 2007, 12:06 PM - Driving
There are some huge trees out here! The forests are very neat. We stayed in Jedediah State Park campground for the first night, but no internet (go figure) so we did a little hiking the next morning then took off. We found a junky RV park in Crescent City that we stayed at the next night. That day though we drove part way towards Stout Grove (it's a once lane, windy road between Redwoods, so they don't like RV's up there). We parked the RV off the road and waited in the rain hoping someone would give us a ride up there. It was a 4 mile walk, so we figured get a ride up there and walk back. A park ranger gave us a ride there, we walked around and saw some neat trees then started down the road. A couple that we saw on the path drove up behind us and gave us a ride back to the RV. They were from Wisconsin and actually drove out this direction to drop off stuff for their son that moved out to Portland.
The next day we hit a few more trails and even saw an elk. Last night we stayed in another kinda junky RV park. We are working our way to Sacramento in order to pick up Joe's friend, Toan, from the airport. He arrives on Saturday. We are currently sitting in a day use area of Humboldt State Park. Very pretty area. We'll try and get some photos up soon. I just haven't gotten any of them on my computer yet.

-Miranda

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Oregon Caves 
Wednesday, October 10, 2007, 02:54 PM - Friends/Family
The Oregon Caves were really neat. The drive up there was a bit steep and windy, but it was worth it. We got there right as they were starting a tour, so no waiting even. The cave that we went through is marble, which is pretty rare. It was originally at the bottom of the ocean and was pushed up to 4000 ft when two plates collided. The carbonic acid from the forest that grew above it seeped through the marble and that along with water created the cave.
There were some very neat formations in there. We'll get some photos up soon.
-Miranda

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Medford 
Sunday, October 7, 2007, 09:26 PM - Friends/Family
We left the lava beds today. The last two days there we spent some time hiking around and checked out a few more caves. On one of our hikes we went to Big Painted Cave and the Symbol Bridge. Both of which contain pictographs drawn a long time ago. Of course I don't remember how old the sign thought they were anymore. :) We also went into Skull Cave which has an ice floor year round. They have that part closed off though because all the sediment on the ice from people walking on it was ruining the ice. We could see the ice though. :)

We had to head north in order to get back to the coast to go to the red woods, so we are just south of Medford staying in an RV park for tonight. There's an Oregon Caves National Park sort of on our way. We may go check that out, but it sounds like everything is guided. Still sounds neat though.

-Miranda


A rock on the wall with distinct pictographs

More pictographs.

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Holy Shmolly Catacombs Conquered 
Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 04:26 PM - Hiking/Camping
I can't believe Miranda Followed me through that Dungeon!!! Imagine the scariest possible Formations, And Layout, and thats what the catacombs were. We were completely underground, Hiking, Crawling, and stomach wriggling through over a mile of Twisty turney incredibly Crazy Cave, Over 3 hours of pitch black silence. Dropped down holes.. Climbed up 2ftx10inch tunnels which Angled and descended.. Stomach Crawled on Sharp Bolbous Lava Chunks With Lava Drip spikes less than a foot above.. .
Pushed myself through some parts which required "Sucking it in"...
Came back a confusing and different route, worried it would dead end... Wow. Was super cool, We both have Bruised and Red Elbows and shins... We found a guy in the caves who was lost and retreating :) We helped get him pointed in proper direction. Some Pictures showing some of the tight spots should be forthcoming soon.

UPDATE: Here are some photos taken inside the catacombs.


Formations on the wall. Very smooth feeling. We kept joking that it looks like melted chocolate.

This was basically on the ceiling. It's a spot where it fell off and into the lava, so it's all rough instead of being smooth like other parts.

Me crawling through one of the worst parts of the catacombs. This brought us back to where we had left our backpack before crawling through another skinny, angled part to get to the section we took back.

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Spelunking and Random Pics 
Tuesday, October 2, 2007, 05:02 PM - Hiking/Camping
We had so much fun today! We explored a number of caves. We bought a small book that talks about each cave and has a map of each. That definitely came in handy on one of the caves. We both got pretty worn out faster than expected what with the crouching and sometimes even crawling. The visitor center let us borrow knee pads which were a huge help in the 'harder' caves. The caves are so neat! The walls, floor and ceiling show tons of evidence of the lava flow. Tomorrow we hope to finish the caves on the cave loop, then we'll start adventuring away from the loop. :)
Here are some random pics. I finally got the photos off of the smaller HP camera. For some reason the panoramic didn't show up. . . So that's sad. Oh well.

-Miranda


Me on the fire watch tower over Crater Lake. Our RV is parked down on the road below in the photo.

The ceiling/upper wall on part of one cave. They said this happened when the heat from the lava remelted some of the surrounding hardened rock.

Me sitting in a super neat area of the Juniper Cave. The white is mineral deposits. There were a lot of lower ceilings in this cave. Hence the knee pads being on. Also, we wore our bike helmets in all of the caves.

The same area of the cave, but the part we were heading towards. Give you an idea of what we saw. :) Click the photo to see a larger photo.

Just had to get a photo of Lucy in here with her new collar on. :) She got up and meowed at me right after I clicked this pic. Probably wondering what I was doing.

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