Crater Lake National Park

The Best Western in La Pine, Oregon was very nice. We were all very tired after all of our walking on Thursday, so we struggled to stay awake until 9 pm. We slept very well, woke around 5:30 am and made our way to the hotel’s hot breakfast a little after 6. They had scrambled eggs, biscuits, sausage and gravy as well as other available items. 

Crater Lake National Park

Mark and Cindy came to our room shortly after we returned from breakfast, so we left for Crater Lake National Park by 7:30. We arrived at the park a little after 9 am. Our first stop was at an overlook entering the park. The air temperature was 43 degrees, so we were happy to have long pants, sweatshirts and jackets. Smoke from the fire coupled with morning fog made visibility an issue. We could see Wizard Island in the center of the lake but could hardly see the other side of the lake. We learned that Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the US at nearly 2000 feet deep. Wizard Island is a small volcano that formed in the caldera after the main volcano blew off. We were standing at over 7000 feet in elevation, and the air temperature was around 43 degrees. When standing in the sun, we felt pretty good, but when a gust of wind came, it was chilly.

Wizard Island in Crater Lake

We drove to the park visitor center in Rim Village and walked around some of the short trails and paths while waiting until the visitor center opened at 10 am. We saw a lot of evidence of forest fires from prior years. On the road into the park, almost all the trees on the west side of the road were burned and dead. Because the road acted as a firebreak, there was virtually no fire damage to trees on the east side of the road. Mary was disappointed that they did not have a stamp for her National Park Passport, but a ranger gave her a Junior Ranger sticker to put in place of the stamp. Mary and Cindy browsed the gift shop where Cindy picked up a couple of gifts for Peter and Nicholas. Mark and I walked around outside.

Phantom Ship in Crater Lake

We drove around the Rim Road encircling crater, then parked to take the architectural tour of the buildings on the Lady of Woods Trail. A trail guide told the history of each of the park’s buildings and how they were used in the past as well as their roles today. From there we took the short drive to the Sun Notch Trail that took us to overlooks of the lake.  We could see the Phantom Ship, a large rock in the lake that looked like a sailing ship. We saw a few other hikers on this trail, and most were wearing face masks. We then drove to the Phantom Ship Overlook where we ate our usual peanut butter and cracker lunch with Mark and Cindy. There was still a good bit of smoke, so we didn’t have a great view of the lake from there. 

Pumice Castle overlooking Crater Lake

The next stop was the Pumice Castle Overlook where a large pumice formation on the inner wall of the crater looks like a stone castle. This formation hung high above the lake at the bottom of the crater. After we took some photos Mark and Cindy decided to start back toward home, so we drove to the Pinnacles area of the park. This area is a steep canyon with tall slender fumaroles looking like giant smokestacks. As we walked the Pinnacles Trail, we were pleased that there wasn’t much smoke in this canyon so we had a great view of pinnacles. There were two young women with a child about 4 years old. Like most boys his age, he ran everywhere he went. We were worried because the canyon dropped off sharply just off the path. If the boy would trip he might easily fall hundreds of feet to the canyon floor. The two women did not seem too concerned and, fortunately, the child didn’t fall.

Pinnacles at Crater Lake

We left the park by the southern entrance on US 97 and continued south toward California. We stopped at Klamath Falls, Oregon, for gas before we entered California with higher prices. We picked up I-5 near Weed, California and drove less than an hour to the Travelodge in Redding, California. We were happy to hear that the grass fire in Weed had been extinguished and didn’t cause a delay in travel.

The Travelodge is not the best motel, but it is convenient. We hope that it is quiet tonight because we are very tired.

For dinner, we walked to the nearby Janya’s Thai Cuisine Restaurant. We split an order of Pad Si Ew which is Mary’s favorite, and each had two spring rolls. We both enjoyed the meal, and it was about the right amount of food for both of us.

We are looking forward to Lassen National Volcanic Park tomorrow. We loved it when we were there in 2011 and plan to walk several trails tomorrow before going to David and Yeh’s house Saturday evening.