Crater Lake - August 27-29th

Our detour to Mount St. Helens resulted in us arriving to our Crater Lake campground a day late.  We couldn't make the campground by the 8 PM curfew.  Did you know that campground curfews are worse than any parent curfew for their teenager?  Usually you must check-in by 10 PM, which is understandable to be considerate to your neighbor, but 8 PM, it’s not even dark by then!  However, it was a good excuse to stay in a hotel, have dinner out and get the laundry done.  Oh and the best part, the luxury of a private bath!

We had dinner at a quaint restaurant, Manning's Café, in Oakridge, OR.  You could have breakfast, lunch or dinner all day - your choice.  It appeared to be popular with the locals, good food and good prices.   We came in shortly before closing, but our server and kitchen staff were very friendly and didn't rush us at all.  In addition to a wonderful omelet dinner, with homemade bread and great hash brown potatoes, they had the most incredible homemade pies we had seen on the trip. Reviews on Yelp rated their pies as the best, so really breaking our diet, we had pie.  They had a great selection of delectable pies and we couldn't decide between the 1 hour old banana cream strawberry pie or the marionberry pie, so we got both!  At $3.50 for a huge slice, we ate one and saved one for the next day’s dessert. 

The next day as we neared our campground, the air was filled with smoke. Evidently smoke from the Lassen NP fire was being blown in our direction.  Luckily the campground was clear of smoke, but the areas surrounding Crater Lake still had remnants of hazy smoke.

 

Crater Lake National Park  http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm  is located in Oregon.  The lake is 1,943 feet deep, the deepest lake in the United States.  It is between 4.5 and 6 miles wide, as its not a perfect circle.   The edges of the lake are the remains of the cauldera of Mt. Mazama.

The park has many things to offer.  We hiked a few trails, one was to a waterfall,

 

 


another was to formations called The Pinnacles; fossilized fumaroles formed when gas was forced through the volcanic ash during an eruption. 

 

We also drove the crater rim road, 33 miles in circumference through pumice deserts, forests and steep rock walls.  Of course the main event at the park is the beautiful "deep blue" crater lake.  

 
Crater Lake was formed when Mount Mazama, a 12,000 foot volcano blew its top off in an eruption 7,700 years ago.  Unlike Mount St. Helens which blew the side off the volcano in an avalanche, Mt Mazama formed a huge circular crater that after many more eruptions became dormant and filled with water.  It took over 700 years to fill to its current level and it was totally from rain and snow.  The current level is maintained through evaporation and seepage.  What makes Crater Lake so unique is that because it did not fill to the top and overflow, the water has not eroded the crater wall and the water stays within the boundaries of the crater, forming a beautiful lake.  Only a few lakes are like this in the world, as most are filled by other water sources.  As no natural streams and sediment enter the water, the lake stays crystal clear making it the clearest water in the United States down to 140 feet deep.  It is also one of the of the bluest lakes I have ever seen. 

 

Crater Lake’s rim elevation varies from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, the water level is about 6,200 feet.  While not as severe a drop as the Grand Canyon, I did feel like we were on the outside looking in and couldn’t really experience the lake to its full extent from the rim.  We found tours of the lake by boat and one of the tours was to Wizard Island, one of the two cinder cones that were still protruding from the lake. 

 As all advance reservations were booked, we had to get to the park in the morning to see if we could get one of the few remaining seats for the following day.  Luckily we were able to get two seats and the next day we set out for Wizard Island.

The boat ride to Wizard Island required that you hike down a mile to the docks at water level, approximately 700 feet below the rim.  You also had to hike back up at the end of the day, in addition, the hike to the top of Wizard Island was also a little over a mile and 700 feet elevation and you had a limited time to get up and make it back to the boat, especially if you didn’t want to be left behind.  I really thought the hiking would be the most challenging, but it turns out the boat ride was.  The water is approximately 50 degrees and it was windy that day.  As the wind blew across the crater, it whipped up the waves and consequently the spray and everyone was half soaked by the time we reached the Island.  The park ranger narrating the boat ride said he had never seen it that rough!

 

Wizard Island is a remaining cinder cone of ah-ah lava and cinders.  The ah-ah lava is rough chunks of rock and very difficult to hike on, but once on the hike up the crater, it became easier.  The view from the top was incredible and we had a nice lunch on the top of the cinder cone.

 

View into the cindercone's crater at the top of Wizard Island

 We also made some new friends.  They especially liked Tony.

I think the feeling was mutual!

We made the hike up to the top of the cinder cone and back down in plenty of time to catch the boat.  Luckily water on the trip back was not so rough.  Tony and I made a speedy ascent and went to the Crater Lake Inn to watch the sunset.  Unfortunately, the sun was already below the crater rim and clouds had moved in, so after a long day, we set off for our campground.  What a pleasant surprise when the sun broke through the clouds over the mountains and gave us a great evening show.