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Published: July 11th 2013
Crater Lake
View from the rim of the calderaToday we continue our adventure in the interior of Oregon. We stopped at the fire jumper’s museum. These men would load themselves with about 150 pounds of gear, fly to the site of the fire high in the mountains, and parachute down in the middle of nowhere to put out the raging flames before they spread into a major forest fire…all this for $2/hour back in the 1960s. Currently, there are 40 active fire jumper bases in Canada, over 100 in the U.S. and 1,000 in Russia. Hopefully they get paid more than what they use to for doing this dangerous work!
Our road followed the Umpqua River, a designated scenic highway. We came upon a spot where the Little River collided with the Umpqua River. Many years ago, an Indian village was located on this spot. Mary picked a yellow fruit off a tree and ate it, not knowing what it was. We will see if she is still alive tonight.
As we traveled along, we found a path down to the river where Mary could get her gills wet… I swear she is part fish. She always travels with her bathing suit on. In Oregon,
Smoke Jumper Museum
The parachutes have to be inspected after every jump. they don’t call it “skinny dipping”, they call it “chunky dunking.” We were lucky to find a short path down to the water as most of this road is up along the side of the mountain with the river far below.
Time for lunch and we found the PERFECT spot…Diamond Lake Resort. This resort, built in 1922, is nestled between two snow-capped mountains (Mt. Bailey and Mt Thielsen) and is at 5,000 feet above sea level. It reminded us of the lodge in “Dirty Dancing”.
Our next stop was Crater Lake Nation Park. The Indians considered this as their sacred place. This park, at 7,000 feet elevation, is the 7
th wonder of North America. The mountain (Mt. Mazama) erupted 7,700 years ago. This eruption left a 6 mile wide caldera which now cradles the deepest lake in the U.S. We drove the 33 mile scenic drive around the rim and took many pictures. Nancy and Mary found some snow on the side of the mountain and had a snowball fight.
There is a boat tour of the lake, but you have to take a path down to the water which is equal to 75-stories (as tall as
Smoke Jumper Museum
Jumpers don't always land on the ground...sometimes, they end up in a tree! the Chrysler building in New York)…we decided to pass on that one.
We stopped to have dinner at the lodge that was built on the rim in 1910. We sat on the veranda, 900 feet above the water overlooking the crater.
What a view!! What a wonderful way to end the day!!
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