Another National Treasure - Crater Lake National Park, 6.6.18 - 6.9.18
For reasons I don’t think I really know, Andrew has held a small fascination with Crater Lake for quite some time. He even has a poster of the lake hanging in his room. I always said “One of these days we will all go see Crater Lake together". Well one of these days became a reality this week. Along with Bob and Dana, this was the first RV trip outside the state so we were super excited for the adventure. Avoiding I-5, we opted to go a slightly longer but more scenic route to eastern Washington, down through Yakima, crossing the mighty Columbia past Goldendale and entering Oregon. We stopped at a cool bridge over Crooked River Canyon above Redmond. We could already see the change in geography. The further south we drove, the more volcanic the high desert country surrounding Bend and Redmond began to look.
Crooked River Canyon
This was the second time Bridgit and I had been to Bend, but neither time have we explored the area. That will be another trip! Once in Bend, we took a recommendation (thanks Ron) to hop on Century Drive which is a scenic loop that ends up further down on the same road so off we went. We had been on this first part when we stayed at Sun River some years ago to ski at Mount Bachelor. At that time, the road was closed beyond Bachelor. After reading up on the drive, we took a side dirt road covered in potholes and washboard a short way to a mountain lake called Sparks Lake. From the beach there was a great view of the Sisters and Broken Top across the lake.
The Sisters (10,368’) and Broken Top (9,179’) from Sparks Lake
Once back on Century Drive we stopped at a few more lakes but none had views. A very interesting feature was the gigantic piles of volcanic debris scattered across the countryside. We even passed a campground right next to a particularly large debris field and we all thought it would be another cool place to camp for a night and check out.
After connecting back to our highway, we headed west on a highway just north of Crater Lake. We passed by the turnoff to Diamond Lake and the extremely impressive Mt. Thielsen (9,182”).
Mt. Thielsen
So a little about our main objective, much of which I learned on this trip. Crater Lake is located in southern Oregon on Mount Mazama. Once one of the towering volcanoes that start in California at Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen and end up on the northern border of Washington at Mount Baker, Mount Mazama stood over 12,000’ above sea level. Some 7,700 years ago there was a cataclysmic event that completely changed the mountain. Now 7,700 years is very recent in geologic time. Some of you reading this blog might even remember when it happened. After a huge magma chamber beneath the mountain erupted to the surface, huge fissures shot out like ice cracking under too much weight. In a span of only about two hours, these fissures encircled Mount Mazama about 4,000’ below the summit. Once the earth cracked, the mountain couldn’t support its own weight and collapsed into the magma chamber, creating an incredibly deep caldera or giant hole in Mount Mazama.
Because of the amazing seal of the crater, no water sources flowed in or out of the crater. Over centuries it filled with water from snowmelt and rain. The result of this is that not only is Crater lake the deepest lake in the United States, it is the clearest and cleanest large lake in the world.
At an average rim height around 8,000’ and an average annual snowfall of a whopping forty-eight feet, most years much of the park is closed to traffic until July. This last winter was a very dry one at Crater Lake so we were hoping at the bare minimum to see the views from Rim Village (which is plowed and open year round) and possibly hike the closed road about a mile to an overlook called Discovery Point. Checking the website leading up the the trip, every day more and more of the road was being opened to traffic so we were very encouraged. Which leads me back to our adventure.
Even though the north entrance to the park had opened about a week ago, we drove by it and took the long way around to the southwest side entrance to get to Mazama Village which is only 7 miles from the rim. Though shorter, if we had driven the north entrance through the park along the rim to get to our campsite it would have been like starting your meal with a delicious dessert and working your way back to the salad.
The next morning we went to the visitor center and saw a movie about how Crater Lake was formed and more about the park in general. It was all very interesting. We found out that the East Rim drive had opened the day before our arrival to a place called Sun Notch. I had been disappointed that spot was inaccessible leading up to our trip so when we were told it had just opened we headed there first. The trail from the parking area was only about a half mile long with slight elevation gain. It wound up through the forest into an open meadow before topping out at the rim of the caldera. What a sight to behold!!
Magnificent Crater Lake
The first thing that takes your breath away is the color of the water. Its rich deep blue hue is due to the depth of clarity in the water. It absorbs the other colors in the light spectrum more readily so the blue is just brilliant. There are no private boats allowed on the lake and the cliffs surrounding the lake are so consistently steep, there is only one trail that drops to the water’s edge. In the lake itself are two prominent features. At Sun Notch we found ourselves directly above one of them which is called The Phantom Ship. This is a rock formation that sticks up some two hundred feet above the surface.
The Phantom Ship
Sun Notch is a long gap between two higher points so we could walk along the rim for a ways before dropping back down to the Navibahn to continue our adventure. Our next stop was to go back to the visitor center and take the road up to Rim Village. This is the main rim commercial area. It has a cafe and gift shop and the Crater Lake Lodge is just around the corner. More on that later.
The views were spectacular from every vantage point and ever-changing as we worked our way to points along the rim. Driving the Navion (which we have named the Navibahn) was very comfortable for everyone. It is small enough to go almost anywhere a normal car can. We were also very pleased that on a Thursday in early June there was hardly anybody there! It’s not that we didn’t encounter people everywhere, it was just really great to not have anything close to huge crowds anywhere we went..
The Navibahn
In doing my research before the trip, I had my heart set on climbing a high point on the rim called The Watchman. The hike is relatively minor. From the Watchman Overlook parking lot, the trail is only .8 miles to the top and only 450’ of elevation gain. Once at the top you have a birds-eye view of the entire lake. Our plan was to tailgate in the parking lot in the late afternoon, cook up some brats on the Weber and then around 7:30PM hoof it up the Watchman to watch the sun set over Crater Lake. Unfortunately, the first part of the hike was completely snow covered and the trail was closed. So with tears in our eyes we drove off to other viewpoints, trying to come up with a Plan B.
The view from Watchman overlook
Numerous spires of volcanic ash stuck up in places around the crater rim drive. One area in particular I wanted to see was called the Pinnacles but the road to that part of the park rarely opens before July.
Volcanic spires near the Watchman overlook
In addition to the aforementioned Phantom Ship, the other prominent feature in the lake is called Wizard Island. This was a secondary volcanic cone created by more recent eruptions following the big one which created a new volcano within the main crater that stands almost 2,500’ high. Despite no private boating allowed on the lake (thank you) there are two commercial boat trips available in July and August. Both start from the bottom of the Cleetwood Trail. One is a lake tour and the other takes people to Wizard Island. A trail on the island leads to to the mini crater and encircles the top.
Wizard Island
There was really very little snow left for so early in June, but what was left really added to the contrast of colors and hues.
Wizard Island, Applegate Peak (8,126’) and Garfield Peak (8,054’)
It was so great to experience this as a family (Bob & Dana included). For all the times our kids have preferred to do anything but be with their parents, Andrew has been a huge part of many backpack trips, car camps and plane travel visits to friends and family. It is such a joy to share these things with him.
Andrew
By the late afternoon, Plan B had been decided upon. We had driven about forty percent of the rim drive from Sun Notch to the North entrance road which was as far as cars were allowed. Since the Watchman was not accessible, we decided that the view from the overlook by the Crater Lake Lodge was the next best overall view so we headed back to the lodge parking lot. The lot was very empty so we weren’t bothering anyone by parking the Navibahn there. Crater Lake Lodge has an interesting history but it wasn’t one of the grand lodges like at Yosemite, Mt Hood or Yellowstone. However, it did have a great view of the lake and that’s where we made our stand.
Late evening sun on Crater Lake Lodge. If you look close you can see the trail leading to the summit of Garfield Peak.
The sun set on the lake around 8:45PM. We didn’t get any brilliant clouds but it was well worth hanging around up at the rim to see the last light fade from the lake.
Sunset on Crater Lake National Park
It was so great to see another one of our wonderful national parks. There are so many more to see that I have never been to and yet I’d love to return to all the ones I have already visited! For Crater Lake, a great return trip would be to go back and spend a week climbing the high points around the lake for sunrises and sunsets in late summer or fall. Now on to the next one!