Tunnels and Caves

Thursday, we made the short drive to Bennett Spring State Park.  There were a good number of people here, but they were all fishing.  Parking at the trailhead for Natural Tunnel Trail, there was no one else here so it would be a nice quiet hike.  Heading down the trail, it was a scenic stretch of woods along a mostly dry creek bed.  Like just about everywhere in Missouri, there were lots of rocky outcrops, bluffs and small caves along the trail.

At one spot, there was a really huge tree.  In just over three miles, we came to the tunnel.

At almost 300 feet long and S-shaped, it was pretty dark in the middle.  The other side had some broken concrete slabs; not sure what they were for.

We explored the tunnel and got some pictures before making our way back.

Sandy spotted some pretty Pennsylvania smartweed blooming in an open area.

Around half way back was a split and we made a partial loop to return to the parking area.  This part of the trail was on the ridge above where we had hiked earlier.  I found some cute little mushrooms growing along the trail.

After about 7 miles, we made it back to the parking area.  Before leaving the park, we parked at Bennett Spring to hike the short Spring Trail.  The other side of the river was crowded with people fishing, but it was just us over here.

There were a lot of fish in the creek.  I think the fish understood that fishing was prohibited on this side of the river as they seemed to be congregating on this side of the river.

Following it downstream, there were some nice cascades.

I also spotted some beautyberry blooming along the bank.

It was about a half mile to the other end where we turned around.  We spotted a plains garter snake on the hike back.

Before leaving, I went down to the concrete bridge for a view of Bennett Spring itself.

Then we departed.

From here we drove north to Lake of the Ozarks to Bridal Cave, near Camdenton.  After paying admission, we started our tour with Sarah who was a really great guide.  One of the first sights was the Pipe Organ, a beautiful cluster of stalactites.

In the past, people would bang on them to echo throughout the cave, but this was damaging them so now it was prohibited.  The cave was just beautiful.

They claim that there are more cave formations in this cave than any other in the United States and I'd believe it.

Further on, we saw the Kissing Camels, a reference to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

The rocks weren't yet touching, but in a few centuries, they'll connect and complete the kiss.  We continued on through the cave.

Another interesting stalagmite was the totem pole.

Another room had a large number of soda straws - thin cylindrical stalactites that resemble drinking straws.

Frozen Niagara was another gorgeous formation that resembled a frozen waterfall.

There was really no shortage of spectacular scenery in this cave.

And access was easy with concrete walkways, handrails and lighting.

It's hard to imagine what this was like to explore before all the amenities.  As we visited each room, there were more amazing sites.

At the end of the cave was Mystery Pool, a deep subterranean pool that mysteriously had a ladder in it.  It's not clear how that got in here.

This was our turnaround point, but before we headed back, Sarah offered to turn off all the lights so we could experience a few moments of absolute darkness.  Fortunately, she turned them back on for the walk out.  Before leaving, Sandy bought a salt lamp from the gift shop.  It was still too early to check in, so we headed to Marty Byrde's for dinner and drinks.

The bar is themed from the show Netflix show Ozark.  We started watching it since we were planning to come out here, so we had to stop by and the food and drinks were pretty good.  Then we headed to the Garden House B&B to check in.  It was a beautiful place to stay, right on the lake.  After getting checked in, we went down to the dock to watch the beautiful sunset over the lake.

It was very relaxing out on the dock and we enjoyed sitting out here into the evening.

Then we hit the hot tub in our room before going to bed.

Waterfalls and Volcanos in Bend

We woke up at about 630 in the morning and it was cold yet again. It turns out the windows in the upstairs loft that we could not access appeared to be open. But with some warm blankets and sharing body heat, we managed to stay warm enough. We packed all our stuff up, checked out of the hotel and made our way north via US-97 towards Bend. After the long drive on Saturday and the limited number of gas stations in this part of Oregon, we stopped and got gas along the way. It was full service, apparently common in Oregon, though I haven’t had someone else pump my gas for me in more than a decade. When we had nearly reached Bend, we turned off the highway at the Cottonwood Road exit and drove to Lava River Cave, part of Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Deschutes National Forest. Lava River Cave is the longest lava tube in the state of Oregon, allowing visitors to hike about a mile through the cave. After parking, we paid the entrance fee to the Forest Service and headed into the cave with our camping headlamps for illumination.

After getting into the darkness where no more sunlight was present, we realized the headlamps weren’t that great. We could see directly in front of us, but were missing out on seeing most of the cave itself. So we ran back to the visitor center and rented a lantern. With the lantern we could see a lot more of the cave, so it was definitely worth the $5. With our lantern, we descended the stairs into the darkness through huge piles of boulders and rocks.

After a short bit, the cave opened up into a huge chamber. Although it was dark, the lantern provided enough light to see the tunnel and ceiling high above. We were even able to get a few pictures in here using the lantern and flash.

Past here, we entered the Two Tube Tunnel, where there are actually two lava channels as the cave goes under US-97 and beyond that was the Sand Garden. This area of the cave is fenced off to protect it from damage. Sand, carried into the cave by water, was dispersed over the ground forming small piles.

Towards the end, the cave gets more narrow and shorter and I needed to duck down a bit to get to the end. At one point, it continued further, but signs indicated we had to stop and turn around. Honestly, I didn’t mind not going any further as it would have required crawling – I’m a little too claustrophobic for that. So we turned around and hiked back out of the cave and returned our lantern to the visitor center.

Definitely a worthwhile investment so we could get the most out of our caving adventure.  From there we headed into Bend and stopped for lunch at Baldy’s Barbeque to try and see how the west coast BBQ stacked up and it was really good. We both had pulled pork sandwiches trying their regular and hot & spicy sauces and we both enjoyed them I had mine on a jalapeno cheddar roll and it was very good. When we finished, we drove west out of Bend on Skyliners Drive into Deschutes National Forest to the Tumalo Falls Day Use Area to hit up some more waterfalls.

Tumalo Falls, a beautiful roughly 100-foot waterfall, is right there at the parking area with a overlook just beyond the pay station.

From here, the falls itself is a good distance away, but straight line of sight up the creek provides great view.

It was about a quarter-mile hike up to the overlook at the top of the falls, with some good views on the hike up of the side of the falls.

We continued on the North Fork Trail heading upstream along Tumalo Creek as there are several more waterfalls along this stretch. And the trail itself was very scenic stretch of evergreen forest along a ridge above the creek.

After about a mile, we came to Double Falls, two waterfalls in one.

The upper portion is a 25-foot cascading veil followed by a 30-foot drop with some smaller cascades. There is a rock outcrop, close to a hundred feet above the creek, just off the trail that provided great views of the falls.

Just past Double Falls, we found Upper Tumalo Falls.

There is some discrepancy in the naming of these falls and whether they’re considered two separate waterfalls or just one. But since you can’t see both at the same time, I’m considering it a separate waterfall.

Upper Tumalo Falls is actually a triple waterfall consisting of two 30-foot cascades, both of which split into multiple streams as the water cascades over the rocks, and then a smaller cascade below. Depending on where you viewed the falls from, the lowest section may or may not be visible. In the pool at the base of the middle section, there was a log floating in the water that was caught in a vortex and swirling around and around and around. We stopped here for a bit to take some pictures, and then started hiking back on the North Fork Trail. When we were almost back to the trailhead, we turned onto the Bridge Creek Trail. This trail runs through the municipal watershed for the city of Bend and we needed to fill out a permit to hike in the area. Additionally, dogs, bikes, and camping are prohibited in the area to protect the watershed. The trail runs through a scenic stretch of mixed conifer forest as it follows its namesake creek upstream. Shortly into the hike, there was a small unnamed (as far as I can tell) waterfall along the creek.

But I was certain it was not the main waterfall as it was too small and the hike too short. It was about a mile to Bridge Creek Falls another scenic waterfall, maybe 30 feet in height.

The waterfall is mostly a freefall with a big log across the bottom. It was a little more tricky to get shots of this one though - I had to climb around a bit to find the best angle.

When we were finished, we hiked back to car and made our way to our hotel for the night – Pine Ridge Inn along the Deschutes River in Bend. We were both very impressed with room. It was very clean, well-decorated, and spacious. We had a gas fireplace and nice outside patio.  After settling in, we made the short drive across town to Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint in the middle of town. It’s not often you find an active volcano within the city limits, but Pilot Butte is just that. We had planned to hike up the mountain and watch the sunset, but it was getting a little late and we had a bit of trouble finding the parking area for hiking. So, we just drove up the top and got some beautiful pictures of the sun going down over the Three Sisters and Mount Bachelor.

In the distance, we could also see Mount Jefferson and even Mount Hood further off.

That was where we would be heading tomorrow. As the sun went down and it started to get dark, we headed back to the hotel. We were still kind of full from lunch, but wanted to try out one of the breweries that Bend is famous for. And just our luck, Cascade Lakes Brewing Company Lodge is just across the street from our hotel, so we didn’t have to worry about driving. We headed over there and had some drinks along with their crab and artichoke dip. It was very good and I really liked the Cyclops IPA. After a couple drinks, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.