Crater Lake

Day 37– Crater Lake, Oregon

How can I tell you how stunningly beautiful this lake is!!! We awoke to a FREEZING cold morning – the price you pay for staying at high elevations. It wasn’t cold at all when we went to bed but must have been in the 30’s when I got up. We started the day by stopping at the nearby Logging Museum which was an outdoor museum and mildly interesting – great for men who like big machines – they were big!!!


We headed then for Crater Lake. Now the brochure says that weather in May and June is unpredictable, the high temp is around 50 and many times you can’t even see the lake from the rim. Good thing I didn’t look at the brochure until after we got there!! We had another stunningly beautiful day – 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky – no wind either. There were still huge snowdrifts around Crater Lake and some small areas of ice on the lake that were barely perceptible. Now the sky at 8000 feet is very, very blue on a day like this. The color of the lake was even a more intense brilliant blue – hardly seemed possible. It was perfectly still so you could see all the reflections of the snowcapped peaks in the lake. There was snow everywhere and the eastern rim is still closed because of the snow. The western rim was open so we enjoyed the drive and the frequent stops. The snow was so deep in many places that you couldn’t even find the signs much less read them – the drifts were still 10-12 feet in some places. I had on a sweatshirt but forgot to put stuff on my face so a little sunburned tonight.


I swear my pictures looked just like the picture postcards I bought. This was definitely a place where I needed to buy a t-shirt to remember!! The afternoon was spent driving back to Route 5 and on toward Portland. We ended up in Salem Oregon and hopefully will find some internet access in the morning. The ride back to Route 5 along the Umpqua river was another gorgeous drive but we were too pooped to go on to Portland today so we stopped about 50 miles short. Tomorrow on to Mt. St. Helens and then Olympic National Park where we will meet up with Zanne and Justin this weekend