Trip of Mystery

Hi everyone! How is your summer going? (or for my one friend in New Zealand and any other readers in the Southern Hemisphere, how is your winter going?) Ours has been busy with work and play. I’m hoping to write the next few posts as travel articles from our activities this summer. Feel free to skim them for travel ideas to take your children (or inner child) to, or read just to catch up with us. Don’t forget to share below in the comments what you’ve been up to. I’d love to hear your adventures, especially fun stuff local to where you live!

First, I’ll catch you up a bit so you know what might be in future posts. Starting with Memorial Day weekend (not quite summer here in Oregon, but it kicks off summer adventures anyway), we saw several big waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park, took a weekend camping trip to some mysterious places in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon, played at the Enchanted Forest theme park, camped at the Oregon coast, ate fun food at Eugene’s Saturday Market (that was as far as we had energy to go that weekend), played in the river at Hendricks Bridge County Park east of Springfield, and explored the fun activities at Mt. Hood. By myself I did a short shady hike in the Thurston Hills Recreation Area one weekend with my friend Jas who was visiting from Arizona. And of course, the kids have had lots of fun playing in the backyard and parks (and on video game devices, of course), watching movies, and doing fun things with relatives (including driving bulldozers at the Dozer Days event at the fairground with my brother). Today I’ll write about that first camping trip. It was epic!

For Father’s Day this year, Chris really wanted to take the kids to some mysterious places: the Trees of Mystery, Oregon Caves National Monument, and the Oregon Vortex House of Mystery. We ran out of time to do that last one, but replaced it with something even more fun.

We’d planned to drive down to California on Saturday, but then our church decided to do a picnic that day at our friend’s beautiful property where we got married last fall. The kids would mutiny if they found out we’d be gone and miss a chance to play there, so we pushed the trip back a day to Sunday/Monday. Early Saturday morning, we headed south on I-5 from our home in the Eugene/Springfield area. We made it to Crescent City, California, in time to eat, drive through the redwoods and play in the river at Jedidiah Smith State Park. We also saw the rocky ocean from the Battery Point Vista Area. Seeing the horizon over the ocean filled my soul with joy as the last few years it had been foggy whenever I had visited the Oregon coast.

While we were in Crescent City, Chris decided to buy some supplies at the Home Depot so we could roll up the sleeping bags into the tarp and strap them onto the roof of the car. This helped the kids be less cramped in the 8-passenger car (leading to less fighting). Unfortunately, it rained on us the next day, so drips of water crept in on the straps and fell on us. Since that trip, Chris has obtained the supplies to attach a real cargo box to the top of the car. Our backup plan is to buy a 15-passenger van so each kid will get a bucket seat to themselves and can store luggage below them. You think I’m kidding, but you try driving very far with 5 siblings ages 6-14 who live in a cramped house!

We finally made it to our first real destination: the Trees of Mystery! If you haven’t been there or heard of it, it’s a great tourist trap. My ex-husband and I stopped there on our honeymoon over two decades ago, but back then it was a bit overpriced for what there was to do. We snapped pictures of us in front of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, used the bathrooms, and called it good, figuring we’d shell out the money when we had kids. We never made it back. But Chris had fond memories of it from his childhood, and really wanted to take our kids. Totally worth it! They’ve added a lot of great things to do without adding that much to the price of admission! In addition to the trails of amazing Redwoods with apt names such as the Elephant Tree, Octopus Tree, and the grand Cathedral Trees, now there is a trail in the sky made out of swinging bridges and an aerial tram that takes you up a mountain to see the ocean from up high. Totally worth the ~$25 admission.

The kids enjoyed the park almost as much as we did. But they were even more excited to see the beach and to camp, so on we went. We drove back up toward Crescent City and pulled off at a beach along Highway 101. Dark grey sands beckoned us out to the driftwood and rocks to climb on. The sun was out, we could still see the horizon, and the kids had a great time collecting shells and rocks and relaxing. We pressed on after a while so we could get back up to Oregon in time to camp at the site we’d reserved.

Laughing Alpaca campground near Cave Junction was quite an experience. The tent camping isn’t in regular sites: you pitch your tent wherever you want to in a big shady lawn. When we got there, the sprinklers were on, giving us a bit of anxiety. But they’d left the sprinklers off in the corner by the river with the fire pit, ping-pong table, and odd vertical playground hung on a giant strap. So we set up by the fire pit. We never did find the clubhouse with the game room and the kitchen room looked closed, but the alpacas next to the property were cute! And the price was affordable. After setting up camp (3 tents) and letting the kids play, I drove into town to get dinner. Most places were closed or about to, so I went to the grocery store to try to find fire supplies and hot food. I ended up with matches, marshmallows, and greasy flaky foods (pizza pockets, corndogs, and burritos) that hit the spot. We found just enough wood in and around the fire pit to make a fire big enough for a quick round of s’mores. The owner had told me that we may hear the tigers from the nearby Great Cats World Park at night, but we didn’t and we slept well.

I woke up in the morning to the sound of water hitting one side of the tent. Assuming the sprinklers were now on for this side of the field, I got up to check it out. Rain! We tore down camp as quick as we could, which was not very quick at all with 5 kids and 3 tents. We got into town in time to buy breakfast sandwiches at the Subway and stop in the Illinois Valley visitor’s center to buy our cave tour tickets, which is highly recommended to do before the 45 minute drive to the national monument (after we got there, the wait for people who needed to buy tours there was super long!). There they gave the directions about what we needed to avoid wearing/carrying in order to keep the bats safe from disease.

If you want to go to Oregon Caves, please be aware that they have strict codes now because of a disease making its way around the world. Read their website carefully. You can’t wear/carry anything that has been inside another cave. The staff at the Oregon Caves visitor’s center gave me a free locker for my camera case, had me wipe down the camera, and recorded what cave I’d taken it in. They did a double take when I said it was the Buddha caves in Bamiyan, Afghanistan! I think that was a new one for their list. And I got a button that said something to the effect of “I’m saving the bats,” which I gave to our 12-year-old since she’d wiped down her shoes because she couldn’t remember if she’d worn them in the lava tube cave we explored last summer. Side note; Chris volunteered to be the person who stays in the back of the line through the cave and make sure there were no stragglers, so he asked if he got a pin, and the ranger gave him one that says “I was vaguely responsible at Oregon Caves.”

Seeing the cave was worth it all. I didn’t get to go far because our 6-year-old got cold/tired/spooked because he’d gotten wet in the rain in the parking lot, and didn’t really like the lava cave last year either. So he and I left at the emergency exit about 1/4 the way in, and hiked down the hill to the visitor’s center to warm up in there with hot cocoa. Even the hike was pretty, with mist hugging giant Douglas Fir trees and blooming wild rhododendrons. Chris and the girls went on and saw the epic cave rooms, formations, and flowstones I’d seen once before, including the naturally elegant Drapery Room. The cave isn’t a lava tube cave like most of them in Oregon or a limestone cave like Mammoth Caves National Park, but a marble cave. Truly a marvel. One of the interesting parts of it is the creek. Inside the cave, it’s known as the River Styx. When it exits the cave into the area around the Chateau (lodge) and the visitor’s center, it becomes Cave Creek. It makes two pretty waterfalls on either side of the driveway and then disappears into a pool by the Chateau. But back to the creek: it resurfaces inside the Chateau, running in a little channel through the middle of the dining room. The Chateau is currently closed for renovation, but I’ve seen it before, and it’s really neat. Random fact: Did you know that the View Master toy was invented with the Oregon Caves?

After the caves, we ate “hot eats” at the Dairy Queen in Cave Junction. They were quick and got our large order perfectly. While the kids sat in the van afterwards with their “cool treats”, Chris and I walked across the street to check out the Taylor’s Sausage restaurant/store that friends had told us about. We figure we’ll eat there if we come back without the kids someday, but for now we made do with buying elk, venison, and alligator jerky.

We had planned to go to Gold Hill after the caves to tour the Oregon Vortex / House of Mystery, a local tourist trap that is interesting to see once (and only once). I’d been there once with my ex and didn’t need to go again, but our kids wanted to see it because it’s one of the inspirations for the cartoon Gravity Falls. Unfortunately, we were running out of time. But Chris and I had one more idea of a place we could surprise the kids with on the way home.

A short drive off I-5, we made it to Wildlife Safari in Winston a mere 15 minutes before closing time. The wonderful staff there let us in to roam around the “Village” area. What a great use of 15 minutes! We saw all kinds of animals. The lady running the camel-riding station brought the camel over to the landing so the kids could pet it. And the dog and cheetah buddies in the cheetah pen snuggled and wrestled for us to enjoy. Chris had taken the kids there for the safari drive during the early days of the pandemic, but they didn’t get to see the village part. The kids want to go back with more time.

We stopped at Roseburg to get giant ice cream cones at Sherm’s Thunderbird grocery store (Southern Oregon’s answer to Winco, but with a gazillion flavors of Umpqua ice cream at the front concessions counter and great prices). We’d had it a few weeks earlier when we drove to South County to visit my old church in Riddle I attended when I lived in Myrtle Creek over a decade ago. Unfortunately, our luck ran out for the day. On Mondays, they close the ice cream early to clean the area. So we bought candy in the store and drove the rest of the way home.

While we didn’t get to see every mystery spot we wanted to on that trip (there’s also Confusion Hill farther south in California, another inspiration for Gravity Falls), we had a lot of fun. And this last weekend, we drove through the first inspiration for the show according to its creator, the Oregon town of Boring. But that’s another story for another day. On this trip, the trees, beach, and caves were enough for us.