Crater Lake

Since I ended up taking a sabbatical rather than working through this trip, we took advantage of the first few weeks of travel to not worry about how connected we were. We had no idea, though, how off the grid life could be from central Oregon through Wyoming. (At one point, Kevin described it as 'suffocating', but didn't actually display any true signs of withdrawal.) We're in Utah now, in LTE land, so I'm going to catch up on how we got here.

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Our first night of real RV’ing started on 8/8, as we left GP and headed for Diamond Lake. We stayed at the Diamond Lake RV camp as it’s the closest hookup campground to Crater Lake. 

We had a pull-though site at Diamond Lake, and really nice campers next to us. The golf-cart driving workers at the park were manic in their management, though. For example, chasing us through the park when we came back at night because they didn't see our pass, which was clearly hanging in the window. Then the 8am knock on the door because they don't allow clotheslines, and we'd hung a sopping wet dishcloth up outside. Our neighbor there had a good laugh at these antics, though, so it was a bonding experience. 

(I'm happy to report, too, that we haven't met anyone else taking their job this seriously as we continued onward.)

The weather wasn’t really nice enough to enjoy Diamond Lake (damp, damp, damp), but it was just a ten minute drive in the morning to get to Crater Lake. 

The first stop was the pumice desert. Check out these heavy rocks we can lift!

 

The first day was brisk—the gift shops sold a lot of hoodies that morning. We did the visitor’s centers and all of the overlooks on the west and south side. 

We also ventured off of the rim to the Lady of the Lake trail. It was a sweet walk through the forest. 

You know what happens when your 11-year old takes possession of your camera phone on a hike? 

You end up with two hundred pictures of chipmunks in your camera roll.

 

Our second day there we hiked the Cleetwood Cove trail down to the lake. Our lakeside lunch was my favorite part of the visit. We all soaked our feet in the freezing water, and enjoyed the sun breaks. The hike back up to the top of the rim was brutal, mostly because of the flat-footed tourists stomping down the ash trail.  

From there we headed south east, and saw the waterfalls and then went on the pinnacle trail. 

They reminded us of the hoodoos we saw in Banff.

We're so happy that we had the time to spend more than a few moments looking over the rim of the lake--this is a spectacular place.