Crater Lake

The Park Service is pretty proud of Crater Lake National Park. Camping at CLNP cost $18 for a tent site, on top of the $10 per vehicle fee to get into the park. Whereas my stay the night before at the perfectly fine Howards Gulch campsite had cost nothing. This seemed like a lot, especially as the lake wasn't visilble when I arrived due to inclimate weather.

While it was raining on the plains in Modoc it was snowing at the higher elevations, and there had been snow storms at Crater Lake, despite the fact that summer was just BARELY over. Fortunately it wasn't snowing as I set up my tent just after dark, though it quickly became evident that my summer-weight sleeping bag wasn't going to keep me cozy all night. So I retreated to the car. The next morning the puddles were frozen and the frost refused to melt off the tent. But the sky had cleared, and, as you can see from the above panorama shot (I got another camera function to work!), the visibility was excellent.

Breaking down the frosty tent was slow and unpleasant without gloves, and very unlike the model of efficienct camp-breaking-down the day before. I was glad to have those little chemical handwarmer packettes that I hadn't used in Alaska . I was surprised at how cold it was, and felt the need to express my dismay at the temperature by scratching the word "cold" in the frost on the side of tent.

The Rim Road around the lake was closed due to the snow, but I was able to hike from Crater Lake Lodge up to Garfield Point (el. 8,054 ft). There was still a dusting of snow on the ground at the lodge, and it was up to a foot deep further up the trail. The rim of the crater is no more than a couple of feet wide in some places. And the rocks were really cool. There's two things poking up from the depths of the lake. The Phantom Ship is a remnant of Mt. Mazama when it broke apart after the eruption. That's the Phantom Ship with Mt. Scott in the background.

Subsequent volcanic activity formed the other one, Wizard Island, which looks like a little dusty volcano. I'm doing my best to obscure it in this picture:After the hike I spent a little while in the great room of the Crater Lake Lodge. It is open to the public and perfect for sitting by the fire, looking at the lake, and sipping hot chocolate. After I got my fill of the first and last snow I'm going to see this season, I set off to Eugene to see Amy and her family in Eugene.

Snow is pretty.