Road 18 Caves Gated

[gapertimmy]

Ahhh the irony of it. Years ago the big debate was over rocks being moved and chalk tainting the rock at the mouth of Skeleton Cave in SE Bend.

 

This weekend while walking the doggies, I discovered Skeleton and Wind Caves both sealed off behind Steel Grid 'bat gates'.

 

Mouth of Wind Cave

 

Much like other tubes in the area, the bat gates are installed to preserve habitat. I find this very confusing as for years these two tubes have been touted by FS as tourist attractions and are trashed by partying teens.

 

The skylight enterance to Wind cave also has a huge 20x20 metal cap on top of it as well.

 

 

I have always been pissed at the disregard of people at the mouths of the caves (broken glass, appliances, bonfires etc), but having access to these unique gems has really taken away something special from this area.

Edited January 29, 2007 by gapertimmy

[rbw1966]

Wow. That's clearly much better than what provoked it. Our government is so stupid sometimes.

[corvallisclimb]

i went to one cave out on china hat i belive. no trails to it or anything, mabey a half mile to a mile from the road but it was gated like that. people had dug their way under it tho. the cave was extremely awsome, probably went on for a mile or so then ended with an extremely narrow passage that left 2 of the larger of our group unable to make it as far as my self and the leader. really cool cave, wish i knew the name of it. anyone know?

[gapertimmy]

Off the top of my head, I can think of about 8 within a 1/2-1 mile hike from the road that have gates on them. I used to have a book with all the names, but its gone missing.

 

There are still 4 that I know of that don't have gates on them, 1 requires a rap into. I'll have to go find the dug out one!

 

The roads approaching skeleton and wind caves have all been blocked off ~ 1/4 before the caves themselves. At the road blocks, the yokels have already setup shooting ranges with old VCR's and computers.

[corvallisclimb]

hanks timmy, do you remeber the name of the book you had? id like to pick up a copy if its still availible. where those the last of the easily accessable caves? the odd thing about the cave that we went to was tho it was gated off there was still a sign that noted the seasonal closure. i could probably show you to the dug out on if your ever intrested, or im sure my friend could get me directions if youd like.

[gapertimmy]

I got the book at the Newberry Visitor Center at lava butte. I think its just called Guide To Central Oregon Lava Tubes.

 

Yeah if you ever want to go in some of the other ones, drop me a PT and I'll show you the ones off the beaten track. Good way to spend a bad snow day.

[Displaced Native]

Wow!! That's really a bummer. I never would have suspected things to come to that. Skeleton Caves holds some really good memories from my childhood and was looking forward to taking my kids there.

 

A real downer.

 

Steve

Edited February 1, 2007 by Displaced Native

[gapertimmy]

Yeah my thoughts exactly Steve. On one of my first trips to Bend we went into Wind Cave... good memories. I guess I'm a bit shocked at it as it got very little coverage in the local media this summer when it went down.

 

Additionally, I find it so ironic that the FS who once promoted Wind/Skeleton to attract tourists essentially let the resource go abused for years, and then their 'solution' is to permanently close access under the guise of protecting a bat.

 

Very sad.

[Zenolith]

That sucks to have to dig, or find some other way in, but what should the FS do, post a guard to stop vandals? I'd be suprised if there are more than two LEOs for the whole forest.

[catbirdseat]

The Forest Service could, for example, use non-paid volunteers to monitor the caves. The caves could be opened up at certain times when volunteers are available. The FS doesn't really like working with volunteers, for some reason.