Driving through southern Oregon alternated between gorgeous and painful. Exiting northern California, we passed Castle Crags (at right) and Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta is California's second tallest mountain and was quite impressive even hiding in its cloudy sheath.
We weren't impressed by the towns we saw in the southern Oregon. The largest city we passed through on the way to Crater Lake, Medford, was just another example of retail, strip-development hell. (On our drive out of the park, we passed through a similar town, Roseberg. One of Roseberg's bars boasted "Girls, Girls, Girls!" If that alone doesn't tempt you, just remember: "No cover with hunting license!" ¡Qué ganga!)
But as we drew nearer to the park, the scenery improved. Once you're within thirty miles of Crater Lake, it's impossible to judge your distance by the road. The towering evergreens are so densely packed and hug the narrow highway so closely, you feel tiny, as if you're skipping down a path through a giant's Christmas tree farm. The tree to person ratio in Oregon must be astronomical.
We reached the park entrance around 6 PM, and the lake was nowhere in sight. That's because the Crater Lake is about three miles away from the campground — and, though the lake surface was at about the same elevation, the rim was another thousand feet up! To get a sense, imagine a huge blue lake hiding just behind the tree-covered ridge in the photo. In contrast to Lassen, the air at our campground was incredibly hushed — no bugs.
We made our plan: set up camp, eat dinner, find ice cream, watch the sunset over the lake. The first two parts were easy. Ice cream proved to be more of a challenge. We travel light, no RV, which means no ice cream. Joe, the ice cream fiend, asked one of the attendants at the campground if she could tell us where we might find ice cream. "Ice cream?" she said, looking at him askance. "There's some in the store." What they actually had were substandard ice cream bars. They weren't the cones we had hoped for, but what else could we do? We bought some and drove up the ridge to the lake.
Words cannot adequately describe Crater Lake. It is big, beautiful, and blue. It has been created by years of glacial runoff, rain, and snow collecting in a 7700 year old volcanic crater, so the water is about as clean as it can get. At 6200 feet elevation, nothing obstructs the sky's reflection — and not many organisms can survive in the water — and that makes it so blue it hurts. Sheer cliffs surround the lake on all sides, so it's not the place for Beach Blanket Bingo. We fell in love with that lake, and took lots and lots of photos. Yes, it is really that blue, and more.
Watching the sunset from the highest point on the crater's rim, called Cloudcap, was breathtaking for many reasons. One was the view, which was stunning. Another was the wind, which was freezing cold. We were all bundled up in whatever we could dig out of the car to combat the cold, and as we waited for the sunset we sat huddled in the trees along the rim. Surrounding us were many mountains of varying sizes, including Mount Thielson.The sun set, turning the blueness of the lake to indigo with purple around the edges, then deep, dark grey, and finally black. It was beautiful.
We left the park the next day, but not before taking many more pictures of the lake. Do yourself the favor of looking at them all (click to enlarge):
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