Crater Lake National Park...and snow!!!

Smith River

On Sunday, we left Eureka and drove north along the coast to Crescent City where we turned eastward. We passed through Redwoods National Park and State Park where we saw thousands and thousands of huge redwood trees towering over the roadway. We crossed the pretty Smith River and stopped to admire and take pictures of it in several spots.

National Creek Falls trail

At some point back on the road, we rounded a bend and saw 6 large elk off to our left! Two of them were grazing lazily (one eyeballing us skeptically as we drove past), and the other four were sitting in the grass which completely obscured all but their huge antlers. It was amazing! Too bad we went sailing past them at 60mph, and so we couldn't get a picture...but it was still fantastic. (Apparently, they're not mythical like we suspect the moose in New England are!)

National Creek Falls

Eventually, we crossed into Oregon and the huge trees and gorgeous scenery just continued. We stopped briefly in Grants Pass and then continued eastward toward Crater Lake. We set up camp late in the day at Diamond Lake RV Park, next to Diamond Lake with Mount Bailey looming behind it covered in snow and thick clouds. We (and by we, I mean, I) shivered through the night in the chilly almost freezing temperatures. Brrr.

Crater Lake visitor center

On Monday morning, we drove toward Crater Lake but first stopped at National Creek Falls. We hiked on a short 1/2 mile downhill trail to the creek where we saw it tumbling over large rocks and spewing mist on everything (including us) around the base of the falls. The falls were only about 80 feet tall and they were partly obscured by the trees nearby, but it was still spectacular. We hiked back up to the car and continued on our way.

Although the campground is only 3 short miles from the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park, we had to use the west entrance some 50 miles away because giant snow drifts remain all over the northern part of the park. We stopped for lunch at Annie Creek Restaurant. The staff all seemed new, which was confirmed when one of them mentioned the restaurant and gift shop had only been open a few days for the beginning of the "summer" season.

Wizard Island in Crater Lake
(I'm in a ski jacket on Memorial Day!!!)

As we drove into the park and ascended the mountain toward the lake, the snow banks increased in depth until we saw that they had drifted over the roof of the visitor center at the Rim Village. HA! (Only a few short weeks ago, we battled 100+ degrees as we entered California, and now we're trudging through snow!) Evidently, two nights before we arrived, another 8 inches of snow fell all over the Crater Lake area, including in our campground. (This area averages over 500 inches of snow every year and it takes the park staff 4 months beginning in April to clear the snow on the north entrance and the drive around the rim. Zounds.)

Crater Lake Lodge Great Room...
Notice the cool bark paneling!

We walked around Rim Village and found the Crater Lake Lodge which was extensively restored in 1994. Apparently it had been considered poorly built and something of a death trap despite the fact that it withstood punishing amounts of snow and harsh winters since it was originally completed in 1915.  We hiked around on the snow banks taking pictures of the beautiful lake and the surrounding mountains. Ken even walked up onto a snow bank that reached above the roof line of one of the buildings. Ah, so breathtakingly pretty.

Crater Lake

We drove on the only section of park road currently open, a short 1.2 mile stretch (out of a total 31 miles) between the Rim Village and Discovery Point. We slogged over the snow and took some more pictures, especially of Wizard Island, a small volcanic peak that formed after the lake began to fill with water. Another much smaller volcanic peak sits very close to the eastern edge of the lake. It resembles a Phantom Ship and so it is named. In warmer months, the trails allow visitors to get fairly close to it, but, alas, we could only barely see it from across the water and it only resembled a tiny lumpy triangle from our vantage point.

Crater Lake and Wizard Island

Crater Lake formed about 7,700 years ago following a series of eruptions of Mount Mazama that depleted the underlying chamber of magma. This depletion caused the mountain to collapse under its own weight and form a giant caldera over 6 miles long and 4.5 miles wide. 

Mount Thielsen

Over time, the caldera filled with rainwater and snowfall. At such a high altitude, no streams run into the lake and the surrounding rim forms a perfect bowl, so no water runs out either. As such, the lake has very little sediment and looks a beautiful azure blue year round. The lake is over 1,900 feet deep at its deepest point adding to its sapphire color. Crater Lake was established as the sixth national park after 17 years of relentless lobbying by William Gladstone Steel, a tireless champion who first read about the lake in a newspaper article in his home state of Kansas at the age of 16.

Ken at Diamond Lake

We left Crater Lake and began our drive back to the RV. Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of snow-capped Mount Thielsen, a jagged volcano typical of the Cascade mountains.

Diamond Lake

We tried in vain to find Lemolo Falls, but it was too late in the day to walk the mile and a half hike down to them. We could, however, see snowy Mount Howlock blanketed with clouds beyond Lemolo Lake as we drove over the dam there. The clouds were beginning to roll in, so we turned back.

We ventured on and ended at Diamond Lake, where we sat on an old log at the edge of the water and watched the sun set behind Mount Bailey across the picturesque water. What a spectacular day.