Mountain -> Crater -> Lake

Ho hum, you’ve seen one Volcano that blew it’s top creating a perfect crater, subsequently filled with melted snow to become a pristine lake, you’ve seen’m all.

The video running on the 1/2 hour at the visitor center says that just 7700 years (in geological terms, yesterday) ago, Crater Lake was Mount Mazama.  In fact, the indiginous indians, claim to have handed-down eyewitness accounts of the fateful event.

Scientists estimate that what took millions of years to create, caved in over the course of 2-3 hours. Well, we spent our 2-3 hours there, and it was amazing… crystal clear, blue sky, no wind (water was mirror like), mid 60’s… perfect hiking weather.  Some locals assured us that we were seeing it “at its best”.

All that said, the State Park that we chose to camp in based on proximity to the lake probably equaled the lake in my mind.  It was perfect.  Large, treed campsites.  Full hookups.  Lush grass.  Bike trails.  Deer.  Firepit.  Mixed forests with falling leaves.  A lake.  Amazing stars at night.  I could go on and on, but within 5 seconds of being setup in camp, I felt the last little bit if stress leave my body.  It was perfect. (except for no tv or wifi, but you can’t have it all!).

Check out these pics!  The kids are getting back into taking pictures, since Kane bought himself a camera, and Kat dusted off her DS (that she bought from Kane).  Kane had a blast taking pics of the lake, and his camera has a built-in “paranorma” (he pronounced it… really “Panorama”) mode which was perfect for the lake.

We drove up to the visitors center (got in free because we have an annual NP pass), got he lay of the land, drove up to “rim village” to park.  At the lunch we packed on the stone wall overlooking the lake.  Then we did the the “Garfield Peak Trail” to the top for the exercise, the feeling of accomplishment, and the views.  What a day!