Southern Oregon Adventure Day 2

The name says it all!

Day 2

The Oregon Vortex

House of Mystery

Our first stop is the Oregon Vortex - House of Mystery.  I have driven past the sign so many times wondering about it.  As we walked up to the entrance, Kelli noticed that her heart was fluttering.

The vortex is circular, magnetic fields that can slightly shift.  Native Americans considered the grounds as sacred and their horses refused to enter the area.  Of course the white man, influenced by gold and greed moved their way onto the land.

What appears to be off balance is balanced and what is straight is not.  Levels were provided and measuring tapes/sticks.  I don't know if words can express what I experienced and saw but here's my best shot at it.    Based on the magnetic fields your molecules shrink and grow.  As you will see in the pictures there are times that my friends and I have switched in height or are the same height.

Level

Kelli is 5'8"
Karen is 5'4" (unless she is wearing heels which she is clearly not)
I'm 5'7" ok I'm actually 5' 6 1/2" if we are going to get technical and was just measured on 9/4

Almost the same height

Now I'm taller

There are different spots where the there are round rocks to stand on where the magnetic field is.  If you relax you start to sway in a a circle.  At certain points you can shrink or grow in size.  The house has plumbs and you can stand a broom up on the magnetic field.

Kelli is standing on a platform that had the level and the broom is standing up by itself

What appears to be sloped down, a glass bottle or golf ball appears to roll up.  But based on the slope of the house it is actually rolling downward.  It's interesting how our eyes can be deceived in some ways by our perception.  Is that what happened?  Possibly but I still can't explain how my friend who is 5'4" is starting at me eye level and if we change places I'm looking at her forehead.

The 3 of us in the middle are pretty close in height

As you can see we increase in height from left to right

You can decide for yourself by the pictures or if that is not enough, I suggest a visit.

We then headed to Oregon Caves with a stop for lunch at Taylor Sausage Company in Cave Junction per recommendation through our stop at Spangler.  We ended up having lunch and taking home some trailbuster jerky and sausage.  If you are interested check out their website http://taylorsausage.com/

Oregon Caves

Oregon Caves!!! Caving!

The tour of the Oregon Caves National Monument takes roughly an hour and a half to forty-five minutes.  The ranger would make several stops to discuss highlights of the caves (although I think they were planned check ins) and presented each section of the cave as if it was a home (living room, basement, kitchen, attic, etc).  Definitely plan to wear layers as the cave is drafty and a cool 45 degrees. The caves are unique in that they have all three forms of rock:  igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic (maybe that Geology course in college was a good thing after all).   Within the marble one can find formations of soda straws, popcorn, drapery, and moons milk.  Moons milk is a bacteria that has a healing properties.  Hopefully my pictures can do some justice.

Soda straws

Marble

Heart formation and moons milk

Caving with the girls

Column

Jellyfish in the attic

Notice the jagged rock - is a barrier - water cannot permeate which leaves the cascade of white down the cave

In some ways I wish we had stayed at the Chateau at the Oregon Caves and done a couple of hikes.  On our way back from the cave we came upon 3 deer foraging.  They were not alarmed by our presence.  Personally this guy was my favorite.

After the caves we headed to Jacksonville, a cute historical town on the fringe of the Applegate Valley (more wine), got settled and headed to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to see a play.  It was a packed day of amazement and wonder!