070915 Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

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070915 Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

I almost missed seeing this. I was planning on driving up the coast from southern Oregon to Portland, but as I was driving I saw signs for this national park. I’ve heard about it before, but didn’t even think of it as I was planning my weekend. Luckily I had camped just about 30 minutes outside of Klamath Falls. When I entered the city and saw signs for Crater Lake I immediately changed my destination.

Driving up to the crater you can see Mount Baldy, Diamond Mountain, Diamond Lake and a whole slew of other mountains. It’s a great view. I find that I keep saying this or that is amazing, but over this summer I’ve seen more beautiful, magical places than in any other three months of my life. Crater Lake was a magical place to the natives. It was such a sacred place to them that they never told a white man about it, they found it on their own years later. The natives of the area believe that the lake is the birthplace of the world and their people. Standing on the rim of the lake it’s easy to see why they thought this.

Even as I write this, almost a month after I was there I remember the serenity that overcame me as I first gazed across the azure still waters. I can’t remember how big across the lake is, I want to say half to three-quarters of a mile, but I’m not sure. I suppose that’ll teach me to put off writing. I’ve seen so many beautiful places this month my memory of each seems fleeting, but the impression all of these places leave on me is indelible.

There’s an island in the middle of the lake called Wizard Island. It’s named that because of the ash plume that’s left from an old ash vent that looks like a “Wizards Tower”, to me it looks like a miniature volcano. You can take a boat ride to the island and hike it, which of course I wanted to do. I found out what time the boat rides started I praised my good fortune when I learned that it was the final day of boat tours. Apparently you could only hike the island if you took the early boat ride, so they could pick you up later in the afternoon; however after racing to the location where you buy tickets I found out that they were closed because one of the two boat captains had a family emergency!

Even though I was bummed that I couldn’t go to Wizards Island and take a tour of the lake from the lake I was happy to find out that one can fish freely at the lake since they stocked the lake with trout and salmon. I grabbed my fishing gear and headed down the mile trail to the lake shore. It’s probably only a few hundred feet to the lake, but it’s so steep that a trail with many switchbacks is needed to get down.

Once there I was stunned by the pure blue of the lake water. Not only the color, but the clarity of the water is unlike anything I’ve seen. The water is so blue, clear, and pure because there are no minerals in it. The lake is kept full by rainwater and snow run off. The lack of the boat tours was fortuitous in a way because without the tours running I was able to sit on the boat docks and cast deeper into the lake. Not that it helped much, I didn’t get so much as a nibble.

Even though I didn’t catch any fish, it was amusing to cast my lure into the lake and watch the 10-15 inch trout circle around it. I could see they were there, but I’m not sure what they wanted to eat. A couple other people were fishing, but no one was having any luck. After giving up fishing, I took my shirt off and got some sun. I stuck my feet in the water but it was pretty chilly.

I found a spot a ways away to camp and headed to Portland the next day.

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