Crater Lake

Last weekend we took a camping trip down to Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. Kevin drove down from Seattle, and Amy joined us along with some of her friends from school. We left bright and early on Saturday morning, and only had about half of the day on Saturday and half the day on Sunday to enjoy ourselves down there ... but we made the most of the beautiful weather.


You can see all of the photos here or some select photos from the trip here.


After driving the 4 or 5 hours down there, we started off by driving around the lake. We tried to get tickets for the boat tour, but they were all sold out for the day (except for some tickets on the trip that leaves you at Wizard Island which we were not interested in).


Here is a photo from the drive around the lake that shows Wizard Island - a cinder cone that is in the lake.





Here is a photo of the four of us.





After driving around the lake, we left the park and did a nice hike out to the Umpqua Hot Springs - some popular hot springs north of the park. When we arrived at the trail head, we discovered that the bridge across the river to the trail was out. So, our 1.2 mile quick hike quickly turned into a 4+ mile hike. This turned out to be a blessing, as nobody was at the hot springs when we got there. Kevin and I got in and enjoyed the water that is supposed to be 108 degrees, but Janel and Amy were not feeling it and did not join us.


After finishing up the hike, we headed back to camp to cook some brats over the fire and drink some beers. We got really lucky and got a site right on Diamond Lake. This campround had so-so reviews in one of my books -- but turned out to be quite nice. It is a very large campground, but there was plenty of space between the different sites and the people there seemed to be largely older folks. There was some noise because there seemed to be some gigantic Square Dance thing going on down the lake ... but no biggy :). Here is a photo from sunset on the lake.





Sunday we took the trail down to Crater Lake and then took the two hour boat tour around the lake. This was a bit pricey ... but was definitely worth it. Below is a picture of "Old Man of the Lake" next to Wizard Island. This is a log that has been bobbing vertically and moves all over the lake. The cool thing about it is that it has been around for over 100 years floating in the lake. They are not sure exactly what keeps it vertical, nor why it does not become waterlogged and sink.





Also on the tour we saw a baby bald eagle up in it's nest. The picture below shows the zoomed in picture of the eagle, and the one below it shows the location of the nest (as well as how amazingly blue the water is there).








We had a good time visiting Crater Lake ... but I probably won't be undertaking all that driving on a summer weekend again anytime soon. I hope to visit the lake again sometime this winter though. The lake gets over 480 inches (40 feet) of snow a year ... so it is not clear all that often down there. Since our winter weekends are a bit less packed ... I will probably wait until a weekend when the weather looks favorable, drive down, and camp in the snow. You are welcome to join me if you like :).