Oregon Caves National Monument & Preserve — Attraction in Grants Pass

Awesome caving experience. Our guide was knowledgeble, informative and expertly guided us through the entire cave experience. I had been here before, but I learned many new things due to his narration. Great hiking in and around the surrounding area. So why not 5 stars? They have a time-wasting check in system and the young woman who was heading up the check in process at the end of the parking lot was condescending and seemed to have control issues. A little customer service training would go a long way for her as well as the individuals at the lodge (who were nice enough). The woman at the check in station provided no information upon request, simply saying that all people in the party had to appear before her. She was reluctant to explain why, but upon my questions, said she didn't want to have to repeat her talk. Okay. Fair enough. Seems like she could provide basic info like the cost of admission without needing everyone in the party to be present. She could also have provided information on how long of a wait we had in front of us (we needed to decide if we had enough time to eat lunch). Both my husband and I were present, just waiting on our older teens to get their coats and our lunch from the car, but wait we did. The woman asked me if I knew how tall my youngest one. I told her he was more than 42 inches as we had him measured last year. She gave me a token and said he would need to be measured as he had to be at least 42 inches to enter the cave. This sounds innocent enough, but the way she demanded an answer then discarded my answer out of hand was rude. Rangers should not ask patrons how tall their children are and expect answers, only to turn around and demand they are measured at the lodge. Just state all young children are measured as a matter of procedure. This young woman Ranger angered the next group as well, resulting in a shouting match. Apparently, the Ranger had demanded all in their party be present, even the non-cave exploring, non-hiking disabled mother who wanted to wait in the car. Again. Customer service training and some common sense will go a long way with this group. I will reiterate, however, that our guide in the Cave WAS AWESOME! If you can brush off the foibles of the few, you are in for a treat. Great cave and we all had...

We tried to book online the evening before but we couldn’t find availability. I called in the morning and it was explained to me that only 3 of the 15 daily tours are available to book online. The rest is first come first served. We were advised to book our ticket at the Illinois Valley Visitor Centre at Cave Junction. I’m glad we called as this experience is not to be missed. We arrived at Cave Junction at midday to find the Visitor Centre closed for lunch 12-12.30. There are toilets at the petrol station on the corner if you’re desperate! We had our briefing and purchased our tickets prior to the drive to the caves themselves. The road is narrow and very winding. The road is in good order although we could see in some places they had been surveying in advance of some road repairs. The drive from Cave Junction to the caves car park is at least 40 minutes without any delays or stop offs. Do allow at least one hour so that you’re not panicking about missing your tour slot. With the upcoming roadworks I would suspect you would need much longer! When you reach the car park at the caves there is another 300m walk until you reach the main visitor centre. The cave tour was around 90mins and the information we received from Trey was incredible! Do take serious notice of the information regarding uneven and wet walkways with 100’s of stairs some uneven and without handrails for assistance! And especially take notice of the information regarding low headroom. At no time did the cave tour feel unsafe but by the time we emerged it had felt like a good workout. I’m 6ft in height and spent quite a bit of the tour walking in a semi-squat position. All in all we would highly recommend this tour and, at the time of writing in June 2023, we couldn’t believe the whole experience was only $10 per adult. Well worth the money. If you’re in the area we would definitely recommend. In fact, we drove the 2hrs from Brookings just to reach Cave Junction, and we’re so glad we did. A Big Well Done to the whole “Oregon Caves”...

4 stars for the cave, beautiful inside, very interesting formations but I wish I could tell you more but unfortunately the guide we had treated and spoke to the two groups, my husband and I and two moms with 2 kids about 7-8 yrs old, as we were all children on a school trip using a child like voice . We know she knew more because when my husband would ask a question she could intelligently answer it in a adult voice but then she went back to the childish voice. We did not learn anything about the the founding, excavation or continued searching of the cave. All the guide told us about is animals or insects/creatures that formally lived in the cave. She would ask if we wanted to go see an animal living in the cave but all we could see was a dark hole because he was sleeping or maybe not in there at all! That is what she did through the whole tour. During our walk through we passed by some amazing formations that we were not told about if even pointed out to us. The guide continued to play childish guessing games with us . There was a point in the tour when we could have left the tour because as she put it “if you are bored “ which we were but we are not the type to embarrass a guide hoping she would get better, nope! She left out so many amazing things on the tour and spent so much time playing her little games that now we have to go back and do an adult tour. I highly recommend going to the caves but check to see what kind of group you are in with what ranger. Our Ranger was Pamela Conner. If you want a ranger that is good with young children she is the one. Walk the .07 trail back to the visitor center for some amazing views! I have included some pictures that I took, most of them we were walking by them and I stopped to...