The road up was beautiful, a bit curvy and narrow at times...
As soon as we got to Diamond Lake RV Resort Mom and Dad left for Crater Lake. On the way they got a peak at Mount Scott, the highest peak in the Park at 8929 ft
Mom went to Crater Lake when she was 3 years old on a family trip to the West Coast. Through slides, she said she remembered Crater Lake and was anxious to see it again! She said her first glimpse was spectacular!
Crater Lake is the deepest blue they had ever seen, it is the deepest lake in the US at 1943 ft and is 6 mi wide. It rests inside a caldera formed ~7000 years ago when a 12,000 ft volcano collapsed, the largest eruption in North America in the last 640,000 years.
Only after mid July can you drive all the way around the lake and the views are quite different. On the NW side there is still a lot of snow
The snowfall is amazing with 43ft annually and poles to help mark parking
From this side you get a good view of Wizard a Island, formed from a later volcanic eruption...look closely at the cratered top...
Along the north side we found the Clark's Nutcrackers, critical to the forest as the seeds they drop provide the main source of forest regrowth!
As you head to the East side, snow is gone, but the temp was around 60-62 deg
Along the East Rim we headed up to Cloudcap Overlook, at 7865 ft it is the highest paved road in Oregon!
As we headed South we saw a great view of the Phantom Ship, another small island that is actually as tall as a 16-story building and formed from erosion-resistant lava, 400,000 years ago.
Also on the south side is a view of Pumice Castle, a layer of orange pumice eroded in the shape of a medieval castle!
As we got to the West side it was time to do some hiking! The first was out to Plaikni Falls, formed from snowmelt, not Crater Lake!
The second hike took us to the Pinnacles, volcanic spires formed when hot ash cooled
That hike actually took us beyond the Park!
The views of Crater Lake were amazing, but we still hadn't seen what we'd call the quintessential Crater Lake reflection view. That night, we went back for Sunset but left early to pick a good spot...well what do you know, the East side had calmed and voila...
As we approached sunset, huge, relentless mosquitos pursued us, not fun! The sunset was quite forgettable as the clouds dissapaited before sunset...
The next day we decided to visit some of the 24 waterfalls in the Umpqua National Forest. Each got better, but the hikes progressively harder as we made our way from our first to last! The first one we visited was Clearwater Falls, a segmented 30 ft drop over moss covered rocks and logs.
Next we stopped at Whitehorse Falls, a 15ft punch bowl fall
Then it got a bit more difficult as we climbed to the highest waterfall on southwest Oregon, plunging 293ft over the edge of a basalt lava flow!
At first it didn't seem like much...
But then we reached the top...
From here we headed to Toketee Falls, challenging because of the 200 steps to climb to the tired falls with 40ft and 80ft plunges over a sheer wall of volcanic basalt
On the way back we stopped at a wonderful little spot for Fishermen, Steamboat Inn with gourmet burgers and pies...had our first Marion berry (also called Oregon berry) pie, sort of like blackberry!
Back at the rv park we had a fire for the second afternoon...the only way you could comfortably sit outside with the mosquitos!
We are enjoying your blog so much. These pictures were incredible.
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