I have friends who are just as adventurous as me. Actually, I have friends who are more adventurous than I am, in many ways. Over the years some of my more adventurous friends had invited to go see Skylight Cave several times, and I had always passed them up because it seemed like a long drive for not much of a hike. Granted, it looked amazing - a cave where sunlight shined through holes in the roof, but only at a certain time of day at a certain time of year. But as much as I love a good adventure, I needed to be in the area to make it work.
Last year we finally made it work. I decided to take a couple days to go on a short road trip through Central Oregon. At the time I was only working two days a week, so Memorial Day Weekend gave me several uninterrupted days off. I found a yurt at Tumalo State Park for the night of Memorial Day, so I built a two-day trip around that, with the goal of meeting Gene to go explore Skylight Cave.
Over the course of two days I explored a lot of Central Oregon, going on several short hikes. I’ve written about the Jefferson Lake Trail and Downing Creek Falls already; both are linked here.
Anyway: I met Gene in Sisters and he drove us through the labyrinth of forest roads to the trailhead. Here’s a sampling of the drive:
I couldn’t find the cave again if I tried. As such, I will not be giving directions because I don’t remember how to get there. I’m sure you could find directions if you looked hard enough!
On the drive there was an excellent view of Mount Washington, Central Oregon’s forgotten beauty:
Eventually we reached the unofficial trailhead. We climbed the ladder down into the cave, where we saw a single sunbeam shining through a hole in the roof. It was breathtaking! In late May and early June, the sun lines up at such an angle that three sunbeams shine through the roof onto the floor of the cave. I had seen photos before, and I was intrigued.
Of course, it reminded me of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy drops down into the Well of the Souls to find the true location of the Ark of the Covenant:
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in the Well of the Souls, an iconic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
We needed to wait a little while for all three sunbeams to appear through the holes in the roof. It gave us lots of time to try different photo compositions:
Gene didn’t realize I was shooting on a 30 second exposure here. I love the result!
Inside Skylight Cave.
Eventually all three sunbeams appeared through the roof. I’ve never seen anything like it. I will let the pictures do the talking:
We had to get a photo of the sunbeam shining down on Gene:
I prefer to stay behind the camera, but I couldn’t resist doing a self-portrait in the sunlight:
Standing in the sun, in a cave, is an experience I will never forget.
Eventually the sunbeams began to dim as the sun moved away from the skylights, and we left to go explore another little-known corner of central Oregon. You can read about that adventure here.