7 Best Sights in Southern Oregon, Oregon

The Allen Elizabethan Theatre overlooks this park, a wooded nearly 100-acre jewel founded in 1916 that serves as Ashland's physical and spiritual anchor. The park is named for the town's mineral springs, which supply water fountains by the band shell and on the town plaza—be warned that the slightly bubbly water has a strong and rather disagreeable taste. From morning through evening, picnickers, joggers, dog walkers, and visitors congregate in the park's most popular areas, which include dozens of paved and unpaved trails, two duck ponds, a rose garden, a Japanese garden, and ice-skating rink, and a reservoir with a beach and swimming. A great way to get a sense of Lithia Park's vastness, and just how much wilderness there is in the northern section, is to make the 3-mile loop drive around its border. On weekends from mid-March through October, the park hosts a lively artisans' market, and free concerts take place Thursday evenings in summer.

Marble caves, large calcite formations, and huge underground rooms shape this rare adventure in geology. Guided cave tours take place late March through early November. The 90-minute ½-mile tour is moderately strenuous, with low passageways, twisting turns, and more than 500 stairs; children must be at least 42 inches tall to participate. Cave tours aren't given in winter. Aboveground, the surrounding valley holds an old-growth forest with some of the state's largest trees, and offers some excellent and generally uncrowded hiking.

GPS coordinates for the caves often direct drivers onto a mostly unpaved forest service road meant for four-wheel-drive vehicles. Instead, follow well-signed Highway 46 off U.S. 199 at Cave Junction, which is also narrow and twisting in parts; RVs or trailers more than 32 feet long are not advised.

This pair of monolithic rock formations rise some 700 to 800 feet above the valley floor. Operated by a partnership between the Bureau of Land Management and the Nature Conservancy, the Table Rock formations and surrounding 4,864 acres of wilderness afford panoramic valley views from their summits, and glorious wildflower viewing and migratory bird-watching in spring. This is one of the best venues in the Rogue Valley for hiking; you can reach Lower Table Rock on a moderately challenging 5½-mile round-trip trail, and Upper Table Rock via a shorter (about 3 miles round-trip), less-steep route. The trailheads to these formations are a couple of miles apart—just follow the road signs from Table Rock Road, north of TouVelle State Park.

Come face-to-face with some 600 free-roaming animals at the 615-acre drive-through wildlife park. Inhabitants include alligators, cheetahs, cougars, African elephants, gibbons, lions, giraffes, grizzly bears, Tibetan yaks, Siberian tigers, and many more species. There's also a petting zoo, a miniature train, up-close animal feedings and encounters, and engaging wildlife talks. The admission price includes two same-day drive-throughs. This nonprofit zoological park is a respected research facility with full accreditation from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, with a mission to conserve and protect endangered species through education and breeding programs. Through its cheetah breeding program, for example, more than 215 of these animals have been born here.

Among the many vineyards throughout the Rogue Valley, Rellik stands out both for producing well-balanced wines (including a quite tasty oak-aged Cabernet Sauvignon) and for having a herd of curious, friendly alpacas, which makes this a fun stop for the entire family. You can admire and even pet the alpacas, and sip wine while snacking on cheese and charcuterie in the tasting room or on the shaded patio. The vineyard is just over a mile up the road from historic Jacksonville.

You'll find an impressive array of kids' games and recreation at this complex just off Interstate 5. Miniature golf, batting cages, a golf driving range, bumper boats, and go-karts are among the offerings, and there's also a video arcade and game room.