Crater Lake, May 3, 2015

May 3 Crater Lake and beyond

45 degrees this morning as we headed east into the sun, towards Crater Lake National Park. I have heard wonderful things about this place so am a little worried that I'll be disappointed.  The north entrance is still closed so we had to drive quite a way down to the south entrance.  But it was a gorgeous drive along the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway.

First we traveled many miles along the Northern Umpqua River.  There were quite a few fishermen fishing for Steelhead.  We are back into rolling wooded hills interspersed with ranchland.   Everything is green and the hills look almost like they are carpeted. 

Many trails, lakes and waterfalls.  We stop at Clearwater Falls which has tumbles of logs and rocks that are covered with moss and lichen.  A reminder that we are still in Rain Forests.

We climb to Diamond Lake, which is about 5,000’ elevation and  see snowmobile signs, “chain up” areas  and tall poles that mark the road in the snow.  But there are only a few patches of snow in shady spots. 

We finally reach Hwy 62 which leads into Crater Lake.  Heavily wooded and more snow as we climb.  Two deer leap across the road way too close to us for my comfort!

We had called ahead, so knew that the one visitor’s center was open but the rim drive around the crater and the visitor center at the rim had not opened for the season yet.  We stopped at the Visitor’s center and watched a 20 minute film about the formation of the lake from the explosion of Mount Mazama 7700 yrs ago.  It holds 5 trillion gallons of the purest water on earth, and has a beautiful blue color. No streams or rivers flow in or out, the water comes from an average of 44’ of snow per year.  It is 1943’ at its deepest, the deepest in the US.  It is 6 miles across at widest point. This morning's clouds have mostly disappeared, leaving a wonderful sunny day.

The first view is awesome.  Literally breathtaking.

The Rim Road was closed to vehicles, but open to walkers and bikers, so Greg got our bikes ready and we road for a few miles.  Fantastic views!   Unfortunately, we are used to biking at 38’ not at 6000+’ and Beth had some problems on the hills – like not being able to breathe and headaches. 

Lots of snow.   We arrived pretty early but by the time we were leaving there were quite a few people, including a group from Mexico that included the man in this Mexican Indian costume.

On the way out there were some interesting formations from volcanic times included these which were formed  by steam when lava hit ground water. 

There are pinnacles and other formations which we couldn’t access due to road closures. We reach highway 97 and while we can see the Cascades to our left, the land to our right is much drier, with sagebrush and shorter trees.

We  head east and  north to see Fort Rock which someone told us about at a viewpoint.  We passed a large marsh which had some interesting birds, like a yellow-headed blackbird and magpies and ducks.

 Fort Rock was formed by a Tuff Ring during volcanic times . From a distance it resembles a butte or mesa, but when you drive around you can see that it is a ring of rock.

Amazing that no matter where we go, there are some sort of flowers flourishing!

We took  31 (the Oregon Outback Scenic Highway) back to highway 97. Young forest mixed with sagebrush and rolling hills.   We stop for gas in the town of La Pine and Greg chats with the attendant.  (It is a law in Oregon that service stations must pump gas for their customers. )   He tells us a nearby street to take into the country where there is BLM land and National Forest where we can do “dispersed camping” – boondocking.  We find a spot off of a gravel road leading to Finley Butte.  Dinner and goodnight!