Crater Lake National Park

    The drive through Oregon was very pretty. Once we crossed over the border from Washington we followed the Columbia river for a couple of hours and the scenery was terrific. There are no straight roads out in this part of the country and it's a big change from our trek across the midwest. We stopped in Salem for the night before pushing on to Crater Lake.

    It seemed like central Oregon was all National Forests and the mountain roads we took to the park were full of inclines and declines as we followed a bunch of smaller rivers. Once we arrived at the park entrance the temperature made it obvious that we were at a pretty high elevation.

    Crater Lake itself is without a doubt the most stunning sight of the trip so far. It's water is a mix of intense blues that pictures didn't fully capture and its diameter is over six miles. The scale is hard to see though because the cliffs that surround it are so large. From the top of the crater to the water is between 1,000 and 2,000 feet. It wasn't until I saw a boat in the water that it registered how big the lake really is. 

   Crater Lake was created by a volcanic explosion 7,700 years ago and when the top of the cone blew apart the crater left behind slowly filled with rain and snow. There are no streams running into or out of the lake so it is one of the purest sources of water in the country. 

All That Blue

    There was still plenty of snow around the top of the mountain so we stopped to play for a bit. I can't say I've ever  had a snowball fight in July before! The kids loved slipping and sliding around, but we had to move on to the campground when our fingers got cold. 

Snow Day!

   We got about halfway around the crater when we were stopped by a gate and a ranger. Turns out there was a rock slide and the way to the campsite we wanted was closed. So we had to turn back and head down to the other campground near the park entrance. This was a shame because this campground was also the breeding place for every mosquito in the country. We set up the tent in a cloud of bloodsuckers and hurried off to a hike to escape them.

    Unfortunately, the mosquitoes followed us along the steep path down to a stream that cut through a scenic valley. The kids had fun playing by the water though and we slapped each other constantly to kill the little buggers. The way back up was more of a challenge because Sully decided his little legs were only good for downhill walks. 

    We spent a cold night in the tent that got more fun as the rain began. Everybody slept with their winter hats on and we made it through. But, as if the park was trying to apologize, a family of gray jays came along in the morning and let us feed them some walnuts. This species of bird is one that I've tried to see so many times over the years up in the Adirondacks so it was a treat to have them so close up. A beautiful Steller's Jay joined them as well, but Adrienne didn't seem as excited as me. 

Gray Jay!

Steller's Jay

    We packed up our gear in a hurry for a morning drive to the coast. It was another couple of hours of winding roads with a lot of fog and rain. If this weather was around the previous day we never would have been able to see how stunning Crater Lake was so we really lucked out.