Crater Lake National Park…simply breathtaking

Jill's Journal: “I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful,” said Victoria, age 3 1/2.

Rob and I did expect it to be so beautiful, but it still managed to take our breath away. Yes, Crater Lake is breathtaking. There aren’t too many other words to describe it.

We spent the entire day yesterday on and around Rim Drive, a 33-mile feast for the eyes which encircles the lake. The views are nothing short of spectacular. The narrow two-lane road hugs the lake as closely as possible and is literally on the rim of the caldera that holds Crater Lake. On one side is the vast, pristine body of water and on the other is equally phenomenal views, varying from mountain ranges and pine forests as far as the eye can see to everything from desert to snow to aged lava flows to wildflowers to waterfalls just inches out the car door.

The lowest part of the rim is approximately 7,100 feet and the highest 8,151 feet. It’s covered in snow much of the year and, in fact, was only fully able to open 3 1/2 weeks ago at the very end of July. Traditionally, it is forced to close again by heavy snow sometime in mid-October.

We’ve been fortunate to take a lot of beautiful drives on this trip, we really have. Some are called the most beautiful drives in America, but I’d have to say Crater Lake’s Rim Drive can easily go toe-to-toe with any of them.

We’ve also been blessed to visit some of America’s National Parks on this trip. Granted, we haven’t been to Yosemite or Yellowstone or Glacier yet, but Crater Lake National Park has got to be one of America’s crown jewels.

And the lake itself! Its waters are the bluest blue imaginable. Its depths are the deepest in North America. Its beauty is unsurpassed. The sheer cliffs all around the lake, many up to 2,000 feet tall, make it almost completely inaccessible, which adds to its mystique. There are no beaches. The cliffs go right to the water’s edge. There is only one access point, one cliff that offers the most determined visitors a doorway to the pristine blue water. It’s 1.1 miles down with a 700-foot elevation drop. We’ll go on that hike later this week for a boat tour. It’s not the hike down with three kids that intimidates us; it’s the hike back up, the equivalent of climbing 65 flights of stairs! We’re preparing the girls early for the journey (we warned them it would be something like our Oregon Trail hike), and they all agreed it would be worth it.

Around 7,000 years ago, the “crater” that makes Crater Lake was a volcanic mountain called Mt. Mazama. The massive 12,000-foot mountain towered more than a mile in the air above today’s lake level. It experienced a series of dramatic eruptions, believed to be the biggest ever in North America, and collapsed in on itself, creating the great caldera, or crater, which holds the lake. Before it filled with water, more eruptions occurred and it is believed the resulting lava flows helped “seal” the caldera’s floor. This allowed melting snow and rain to gradually accumulate with nowhere to go. To this day, no stream runs in or out of the lake, making it a “closed” ecological system. The lake is considered one of the purest and most pristine in the world. Because it is fed only by rain and snow, Crater Lake is the cleanest large body of water in the world. The clarity that provides helps give it its intense blue color.

Wizard Island is actually a volcanic cinder cone, very similar to Lava Butte in Bend, which we visited a week ago. It rises 767 feet above the water.

That itty-bitty boat visiting Wizard Island is bigger than it looks. It actually holds 40 tourists.

Although the first white man to discover Crater Lake was John Wesley Hillman in 1853, Indians knew about it for thousands of years. It was sacred to them and they hid its existence to outsiders. They believed gazing upon the waters was fatal. Native legend reveals one Indian journeyed to the lake’s depths while it was still dry. “On the crater floor he saw fissures, mounds, huge gnarled rocks, and a strange yellow substance that resembled gold.” –Crater Lake National Park

The 183,000 acres that hold Crater Lake and its surroundings were turned into a National Park in 1902. The Lodge was opened in 1915. Although it’s not as grand or elaborate as the Lodges we saw at Oregon Caves or Timberline, the splendor of the surroundings sort of makes up for that!

The girls found the Great Hall’s fireplace plenty cozy, however.

Depending on the area, Crater Lake is 4 1/2 to six miles wide. Its depths plunge 1,943 feet, making it the deepest lake in North America and the seventh-deepest in the world. It averages 44 feet of snowfall annually. This past season well exceeded the average with 673 inches, or over 56 feet of snow. Park rangers point out this is the equivalent of nearly two inches of snow falling daily for an entire year.

This is “Phantom Ship,” a remnant of an ancient volcano called Phantom Cone. It’s made out of dense lava and is the oldest exposed rock in the Crater Lake caldera.

The lake originally contained no fish, but a man hand-walked a bucket of fish 40 miles to the lake in the 1800s and now there’s no getting rid of them. Because they threaten the natural system, fish are not welcome in the lake and visitors are encouraged to fish for the rainbow trout and kokanee salmon as much as possible.

Yesterday was just an introduction for us to the marvel that is Crater Lake. We’ll be spending a lot more time here in the coming week.