The Real Oregon

This is the third of the three traditional lodges in Oregon and the least known of the three. Oregon Caves Chateau sits, not surprisingly, inside Oregon Caves National Monument and across the street from the entrance to Oregon Caves, a somewhat out of the way tourist attraction in the southwest corner of the state. The drive up from Cave Junction is winding and spectacular. The chateau is six stories tall and built into a steep gorge. You enter, from the uphill side, on the fourth floor; the stream in the gorge flows through the dining room..

 The chateau was built in 1934 and still has a ’30s vintage soda counter in coffee shop. Despite its multiple stories, the lodge has only 23 guest rooms, which are comfortable but basic. The restaurant is excellent. The lodge was badly damaged by a flood in 1963 but was repaired, though some of the original parquet floor was not restored. The lobby features a fine vintage collection of large hand-colored black and white photographs by Fred Kiser.

The cave, open by guided tour only, is well worth seeing, as are the old growth forest hikes in the mountains around the lodge.

Sylvia Beach, as you literary types already know, is not a beach. She was a bookseller in Paris in the 1920s who hung out with such notables as Dorothy Parker.

In Oregon, though, Sylvia Beach is a beach-front hotel that caters to book lovers. The old wood-frame waterfront building, in the nice old part of Newport called Nye Beach, has literary themed guest rooms: The Edgar Allan Poe room, for example, is decorated all in black and features a pendulum over the bed. There’s a Dr. Seuss room and an Emily Dickinson room and an F. Scott Fitzgerald room. The hotel has no telephones, radios or TVs in its guest rooms. The rooms do have journals, which make entertaining reading. Meals are served family style in the dining room, and hot spiced wine is offered at 10 p.m. A couple free-range cats wander the premises and may even visit you in your room.

Altogether a little precious — there’s a bit of a dowdy old ladies wearing sweats factor — but completely enjoyable. Check the hotel’s website for more details.