Crater Lake was known by lots of other names through the years and was finally named Crater Lake, still had some wildfire burning but they declared it safe so I was very happy to hear that!! You can see the smoldering of the 0.9% that was still burning..I was there Oct, 9th.
OMG right off the bat the very first thing I see is the lake!! So BLUE! This lake was formed when the entire top of a Mt Mazama, the volcano, collapsed and sunk and the caldera filled with rain water and snow melt..so it has no source and no outlet..its the purest lake in America!
They get 44 ft of snow in the average year! Thats amazing....here is a look from another viewpoint..
The Island there is called Wizzard Island. There's an East and West Rim drive and its about 30 miles all the way around. Here is a zoom in of the cinder cone in the middle of the island
Casey and I decided to drive down the west rim drive...and we had lunch at one of the view points no one was there and so we enjoyed our lunch right by the crater...
He is a cheap date for sure! The signs say not to share but this uninvited guest wouldn't take no for an answer! This Clark's Nutcracker was making quite a fuss!!
Another beautiful thing I noticed is the gnarled wood near the rim of the lake....
It could be Bristle cone pine but don't make me swear to that..
the pines around the rim attracted a lot of Pine Siskins...
Nearby is another volcanic peak Mt Thielsen...it has a very sharp top!
The park has some beautiful landscape around...
There is a rim trail too if you want to hike along the rim...I didnt I had planned to camp in the park but Mazama Campground closed on Oct 4th! There was a 16 site primitive camp near the Pinnacles area, but it was full! So that all meant I had to leave the park to find a spot for the night so I didnt make it up the entire East rim drive. But there are no bad views here...
We met some other friends along our route...any hand out was greatly appreciated we didn't oblige but others did..
The other camp ground was near the Pinnacles these things were created by steam rising up out of the ground and building sand castles along its path upward! They remind me of Hoodoos, a little but some have very sharp points!
It was most amazing!!
I did watch a film in the VC, it was really awesome and explained the entire creation of the lake, so if you go make sure you see that! I really did want to spend an extra day here but the lack of camping spurred me to move on, so I exited the southwest on Highway 62, toward Union Creek. We traveled into the Rogue River Natl Forest and found a nice campground called Farewell Bend....they were scheduled to close on Oct 20th!
we set up right by the river in this beautiful spot...
I made up a video here and figured I'd share it...hope y'all can view it..
We were in Site #3, and it cost me 1/2 the usual so I paid $10.
PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.
