Crater Lake

We left the North Cascades on a detour route since the road we were supposed to take was closed due to mud slides from heavy rains.  The large forest fires in the area just prior to our arrival had left no vegetation on the steep slopes and the rains came the night we arrived and did considerable damage in the area already damaged by the fires.

We traveled south through central Washington on route 97 which is the main north south road east of the Cascades.  There were orchards and vineyards much of the way in Washington.  We stopped at a nice roadside market and picked up quite a bit of fresh fruit.  We continued southward crossing the Columbia River and climbed up out of the valley onto the high plains of central Oregon.  This was mostly big wheat farms as far as you could see.  We got into southern Oregon and arrived at Crater Lake National Park.  We stayed in a nice campground just outside of the park in the national forest at Rainbow Lake.

We were back up in the Cascade Mountain Range as we approached Crater Lake.  You can not see anything but peaks as you approach the lake.  We parked and walked up to the rim and this is the first view of Crater Lake.

The waters of the lake are an amazing dark blue.  Crater Lake is one of the deepest fresh water lakes in the world at around 1900 feet in the deepest hole.

Crater Lake was formed by a volcano thousands of years ago.  It erupted and then formed a caldera which is like a bowl at the top of the volcano.  Water started to collect and over time it collapsed into itself forming Crater Lake.

The views from the north rim were breathtaking.  The above photos show the lake starting from the north shore and working all the way around to the south and then finally to the west.

I ran into this lovely lady as I was leaving the view point on the north rim.

We left the north rim and traveled around the west side of the lake on a very narrow and winding road which earned it scenic route designation.  

This is a closer look at the photo just above this one taken from the west side of the lake.  It shows how steep the walls are going down to the lake.  There are a couple of places where people can get down to the waters edge where boat rides are offered.  There is even one place where swimming is allowed if you are immune to cold water.

We had a nice stay in a lovely campground and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains and especially Crater Lake.