After Ashland, Jan and I drove north to Crater Lake National Park. The Park’s main attraction is a huge caldera that was formed 7,700 years ago by a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.
It is believed to have been the largest eruption in North America during the past 640,000 years, spewing ash 30 miles into the air. The top 5000 feet of the 12,000 foot high Mount Mazama collapsed into the center void left by the huge magma chamber. That formed the caldera.
Now, the surface of the lake is 700 feet below the rim, and the lake is almost 2000 feet deep.
It is filled by rain and snow fall. No rivers run into it, and it’s considered to be the cleanest large lake in the world.
Some nice people gave us tickets for the trolley tour around the rim of the caldera. The following day, we took the boat tour.
There is only one trail down to the water and it’s a fairly steep 1.1 mile trail. Dispite the warnings about the climb back up, we made it without difficulty.
We enjoyed to boat tour and the different views of the lake from the surface of the water. The islands formed by later volcanic eruptions were unique.
The legendary Old Man of the Lake made a special appearance for us. It is a 30-foot tall tree trunk, that has been bobbing vertically in Crater Lake since at least 1896. He can be anywhere on the lake and sometimes hard to locate.
In 1988, scientists tried to tie him up, but as soon as they did so, a freak storm rolled in bringing snow in August. As soon as they released him, the weather magically cleared, so it’s said that the Old Man has very special powers.
We took our lunch and lots of water, so we could enjoy a picnic with a beautiful view on the way back up. Actually, it was really fortunate that we had food with us. All of the electricity in the park went out at 6 pm the night before and didn’t come back on until the late afternoon after our hike.
The park closed all of the restaurants and stores when the electricity went out, so there were a lot of people who went without dinner. We had to deal with the darkness, but at least we weren’t hungry.
All and all, we felt that Crater Lake really exceeded our expectations, and we were very happy that we went. It’s incredibly beautiful. Just like our experience in the redwood forests, we found it a bit frustrating to try and capture the views with a camera. Being there in person is amazing.