Central Oregon Vacation--Derrick Cave Edition

The one other MUST SEE on our list for this trip was Derrick Cave. Derrick Cave is part of the the huge Devil's Garden Lava Flow, and it was really really cool to see.

First off, this is the parking lot for Derrick Cave. Now, you would think that it would be marked. It is not. In fact, later on this day we decided to round out our Tour of Oregon's Privates, as this trip came to be known rather quickly... (and how could you call it anything else, with names like Crack-in-the-Ground, and Hole-in-the-Ground?!) and visit Hole-in-the-Ground. We never did find Hole-in-the-Ground, although I'm betting good money in retrospect we drove right past the parking lot for it before heading off on a rabbit trail of Forest Service Roads. I'd advise using GPS coordinates with wild abandon if you're planning on exploring Oregon's privates. Oregon, if I could impart two bits of wisdom for you: First off, please label your landmarks. That would be handy. Secondly, you've got the worst washboard I've EVER in my whole entire life seen/felt/been rattled nigh to oblivion by. So, perhaps if the State/Managing Department could put signs up, and the local errant teenagers/hillbillies/what-have-you could resist the urge to destroy the signage, people could actually find the cool stuff they're looking for when they visit from places unknown. Not sure what you're going to do about the washboard. Just thought I'd tell you. Because I've driven on a lot of washboard, and that was hands-down, the worst washboard EVER. Thank you.

Also, in case any of my readers ever decide to see these places, I will say that everything we did could be accessed by car.  The road to Derrick Cave was the worst one, and as we were driving on it, we decided that a car could come up to Derrick Cave if they wanted to. And actually, I know it can be done, because when I was searching for information on it I happened upon a blog post by someone who did it in a Honda Civic. I will not link to it due to language, which tells you how they felt about it, haha, but it can be done. :-) It would most likely take a lot of steely nerve, but it could be done.

Anyway. Back to the story at hand. Derrick Cave. This is the unmarked parking lot for Derrick Cave.

 This is the short, but possibly longer-than-one-might-think trail for Derrick Cave, that comes after an unmarked parking lot, which means if you're scouting in an effort to find Derrick Cave, you might walk about halfway on this here trail, and then decide to give up, because you could walk through the whole of Devil's Garden, and never find Derrick Cave, for all you know.

 At last! After all that, Derrick Cave. It has two sections. We all brilliantly forgot our headlamps in our tents. But, we were able to explore about as much as we wanted to, so that's good enough. The north section of Derrick Cave was used as a bomb shelter in times past. This was pretty cool. Also, pretty stinky. Not going to lie, if I had the choice between this disgusting, creepy, horrifying bomb shelter and running through the woods Red Dawn style, I would SO totally choose Red Dawn.

Disclaimer: I am a bit claustrophobic. Also, I am not a huge fan of caves. So, only by maintaining a very strict stubborn hold on my nerves was I able to explore this without freaking out. Also, it was pretty cool, so that helped me maintain my dignity. I may have been praying the entire time we were standing underneath these huge-appears-to-be-barely-hanging-on boulders on the ceiling.

 The kids thought it was awesome.

 It WAS pretty awesome, actually.

 It got dark pretty fast, which was cool.

 There are two different holes in the ground above the main part of the cave which give this really cool effect.

 We had great fun for a long time throwing dust into the sunbeams, and then posing in the resulting glow.

 The colors are BEAUTIFUL.

 After that, we checked out Fort Rock, Oregon.

Interjection for Gear Review:

These are our Snow Peak Cast Iron Stakes, with hammer. These were the one thing we purchased at and  walked away from the Overland Rally with. They are COOL. Anyone who does any camping knows how very irritating tent stakes can be. The ground is really rocky at a lot of places we camp, so that's an added irritant. And, no matter how expensive/high quality your tent is, they still usually come with cheap stakes. These were expensive--it ended up being $90.00 for 10 stakes and the hammer and bag to hold them all. (I should say that we might have gotten a bit of a discount on them too. Can't remember for sure.) At first I was slightly horrified. $90.00 for tent stakes?! Are you kidding me? But, I am a firm believer in and huge fan of them now. The fact is these will outlive us. Provided we never lose them, our great-grandchildren could use them some day. And, we've already tested them on rocky ground, and they are a piece of cake to hammer all the way in, and get out. The fact that I'm not worried about stubbing my flip-flopped toes on halfway sticking up tent stakes first thing in the morning is worth the price alone, I tell you what. They could even save your marriage, if your spouse is the one who usually halfway nails the tent stakes that you end up tripping upon and stubbing your toe upon. Not to mention that we can use them with any tent we ever purchase. So, we highly recommend. These are Sanitarium Approved. Saving your sanity, and your marriage, and in a windstorm, your tent too. Very cool.

Table Rock, Oregon

 On the way home, we decided to travel roads we'd never traveled before. And, we didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, because it was SO spectacularly beautiful. But, it was an 11 hour drive, and Frank was winding up all the way home for a crazy week at work, and I was winding up for an epic to-do list. I'm so very glad we did it, and got to enjoy it before the craziness that has been our home this last month. We drove from Christmas Valley, up through Burns, OR, alongside the Blue Mountains, and then through John Day, OR and up through the Tri-Cities area to home. It was absolutely beautiful. So very hard to not pop off the highway and explore. I can't wait to go back and take pictures and explore side roads.

In Burns we ended up stopping for lunch, and I fell in love with our new ARB Fridge all over again when we were able to stop at a park instead of a restaurant, and eat out of our food supply instead of spending $20-ish on yucky fast food. It was blissful.

Have you ever eaten cantelope out of your husband's boot?

 I love this fridge. In the future I'll plan better and have lunch ready to go in the top of the fridge so we don't have to pull the whole back apart to get to our food. Since we didn't want to rip into the Pelican Case with our bread in it, we did lettuce wraps with ham and cheese, and it was delish. Garrett has worked really hard on setting up the back of our Rover this year for camping, and it is SO SO NICE.

 Relaxing and Playing before hitting the road again....

Thanks for joining us on our trip!