This post is part of my series on the National Park System. One of my goals while the kids are still at home is to visit as many of the National Parks and Monuments in the Western United States as we can.
Crater Lake National Park is located in southern Oregon, in the Cascade Range. Believe it or not, I had never visited it until last summer. My grandparents lived for a few years in the Eugene area, and we used to drive up there. While we went up through the Redwoods one year, we never did manage to get to Crater Lake for some reason.
Crater Lake itself is a relatively new feature, geologically speaking. A volcano, Mount Mazama, blew its top off completely about 7,700 years ago. That’s during recorded history - a mere blink of an eye in geological time. In fact, the Native Americans in the area have stories about the eruption that go beyond the mythical origin story genre into details that indicate that there were eyewitnesses to the devastation.
This youth is in contrast to many of our favorite National Park and Monument destinations, which were formed millions - or even billions of years ago.
Anyway, the top of Mount Mazama blew off, transforming a typical cone shaped volcano into a caldera. The bottom fell in when the magma retreated, leaving a crater. And what a crater it is. The lake itself is 2000 feet deep. And the walls are literally nearly straight down. The walls then extend an additional 2000 feet up from there. Pictures cannot do this justice - it is an epic place and truly larger than life.
Crater lake has no outlet - and no inlet. All the water that comes in is from direct snow and rain. And there is a lot of it. As in 43 feet of snow in an average winter, plus a good bit of summer rain. All the water that leaves does so from evaporation and seepage. That mountain isn’t exactly watertight, so there are springs all around the outer slopes.
We took two hikes for lake views. The first was Mt. Garfield, which towers over the lake. This is a great hike in the moderate to difficult range, depending on your conditioning. It is worth the trouble for the spectacular views. The other is the hike down to the water’s edge. We did this after a storm blew in, so the lake itself was fogged in.
In addition to these, there are several other view trails, some of which were inaccessible because the south rim drive was closed. There are also a few short hikes on the outer rim, which are quite nice. (Although there were a lot of mosquitoes, something we Southern Californians are not used to.)
We camped inside the park - the campground is quite nice. There are other options, however, including the lodge right on the rim.
Pictures:
Composite picture from the rim.
The kids and me on top of Garfield Peak. Yes, there was still snow there in July.
This is a good perspective on how steep the terrain is, and how clear the lake is.
Clark’s Nutcracker
The meadow by Annie Creek. This short loop is right by the campground.
Striped coralroot, a parasitic relative of the orchid.
These are very ephemeral, so I was fortunate to catch one before it faded.
These are very ephemeral, so I was fortunate to catch one before it faded.
Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel
Down by the shore on a rainy day.
