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!

Southern Oregon Adventure Day 1

Day 1

Leave 8 am in the "Pregnant Roller Skate"

Ready to roll

My dad insisted on buying a small Suzuki car to putt around town and the gas mileage was much better than his truck.  Kelli stated it looked like a rollerskate but the sides bulge out so it became the "pregnant roller skate".  My SUV has been acting strange and there is some issue with loss of power so that meant we needed a different vehicle.

Off we went in the pregnant roller skate to Southern Oregon.  The original plan was to hit the following on my list of 39 experiences:

1. Oregon Caves
2. Wine Tasting through Applegate Valley
3. Stay the night in a treehouse
4. House of Vortex
5. Crater Lake

The treehouse did not happen as they take reservations in advance and the waiting list of 50 people was already full.  In addition, Karen made a request that we go to the Winston Wildlife Safari and I added wine tasting through Umpqua Valley.

I went to my best resource John Hansen and asked about which wineries to go to. Off the top of his head, he gave me the following:

• Hillcrest - the oldest winery in Oregon
• Spangler
• Abacela
• Quady North
• Troon
• Cow Horn
• Folin
• Valley View

(John also suggested that we hit the Wildcat Preserve in Cave Junction).

So we headed out towards Roseburg and began our wine tasting adventure.  There were three wineries for the Umpqua region so looking at the map we decided to stop by Henry Estate. In the Umpqua Valley, they are encouraging visitors to do the winery passport by hitting 5 wineries - you receive a small gift and are entered in a drawing to receive a package of wines.  

On our wine tasting adventure

Hmmm there is a reason why John did not mention Henry Estate.  I attempted to try to choke down their wines.  I don't recommend stopping by.

Well you can read the sign

Next up was Hillcrest which is not only the oldest vineyard in Oregon but a small operation where you can only purchase wines from the winery.  Everything they make is quite wonderful.  I recommend the 2009 Tempranillo.   The owner suggested we stop for our fifth winery at Del Fino, another small operation.  So we headed to Del Fino. The guy was excited and interested in his work but again, I wasn't in love with any of the wines.  

Cluster of grapes

Stop #3 was Abacela.  You can purchase Abacela wines in the grocery store I have had several of their wines and love their Tempranillo, Syrah and Vitner's Blend.  At their gorgeous tasting room, I had a fantastic Viognier.  Our last stop was at Spangler, which also has a tasting room in Newberg.  Again, a small distribution to a few restaurants so you must purchase through their tasting room/winery.  My favorite wine was the 2008 Syrah.  

Always a good choice for wine

On the patio of Abacela

(To note Southern Oregon wines has the heat and intensity to grow fantastic Tempranillo and Syrah grapes, unlike the the Pinot Noir found closer to the Portland area).

Winston Safari

Then we headed to the Winston Safari.  I will be honest this was not on the list of highlights for me.  It was ok and I saw a lot of wildlife but some of the spaces still seemed confined for the bears and cats.  The leopard with her 3 cubs were the cutest thing ever.   Below is the tour based on my camera.

Ostrich or Emu?

Well I lost my Safari map guide so ????

Lions ready for feeding time

Long horns - on a wildlife safari???

Hippo

You can see his/her eyes

Zebra

Horned ????

Wildebeest in the background

Bear

There are a lot of pictures - they were pacing by the fence

I felt bad for these guys that were across the way 

Elk

Rhino

Camel

This guy got close to our car

Monkeys

Grooming

Some sort of white deer but they look like a cross between lambs and goats

Looking over her cubs

Alert momma

Tiger

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh my

I definitely think the cats and the bears need more space...especially the leopards.  I guess I can say I did it, check it off my list and look towards doing an African safari in the future some day.