Soda straws in Oregon Caves National Monument, early in the on-trail tour. (They now have an off-trail tour, which looks like it is an add on to, and near doubling of the length of, the other one) I like how this photo caught the droplets of water hanging on the ends.
Paradise Lost, near the end of the cave tour.
Dana highlights a recumbent fold on the road between the parking area and the park offices at OCNM. We managed to arrive here a bit before 10 AM, when registration began for the tours, and got onto the first tour at 10:45. The tour was to last 90 minutes, but may well have gone on a bit longer, due to questions and comments from Dana and I. So by the time we got back to the car (see above for one of several distractions along the way) it was well past 1 PM.
BTW, if you're ever passing through Cave Junction- not even, necessarily, on your way to OCNM- and you're not a strict vegetarian, Taylor's Sausage and Country Store has some of the finest and most reasonably priced lunches you could ever hope to find. I've eaten there the last two days, and can't say how jealous I am of that tiny little community.
Finally, the green patches are
garnierite, which Dana was able to find in modest quantities near the entrance to the decommissioned mine at Riddle, Oregon. I'm somewhat red-green colorblind, and was having a devil of a time, though I could find enough likely samples that I could take them to her and ask, "Is this green?" and get her started to recognize the material (like bauxite, not a true mineral). There is also very abundant, lightly weathered and mostly untectonized peridotite here, which was a kick for me. The only times I've visited before, I've been focused on the ore, and paid no attention to the surrounding ultramafics. Incidentally, this is the NNE extension of the same Josephine Ophiolite in and on which we spent the bulk of the day yesterday.
Photos unmodified. May 9, 2013. Locations will be specified when I post on these spots in more detail.
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