Crater Lake National Park

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We were a bit early on this one.


When we sat down to plan our California, Oregon, and Washington route in December, we know we'd have to time the parks right to make sure we could both get in and get around once in. When it comes to the mountain parks (of which there are many in those three states), you can't just show up at any time of year and expect to see the park.

We also knew we didn't want to wait too long to get to them because that would negatively affect our time available for Alaska later this summer. We had to shoot for the Goldilocks zone, so to speak.

We used historical monthly snow accumulation at the parks as our guide, and it worked out pretty well through California. With the exception of a few trails at Lassen Volcanic National Park, winter weather and/or snow accumulation never prevented us from experiencing the parts of the parks we wanted to experience.

Until now.

You know a park gets a lot of snow if you need a tunnel to find the bathroom in winter

As one may guess, the main attraction at Crater Lake National Park is Crater Lake. It's a lake... in a crater. Said crater was formed a few thousand years ago when the volcano blew its top off and then collapsed in on itself, leaving a crater (with a mini volcano island in the middle!). But that wasn't enough to form a lake. It also sealed the crater so that water couldn't seep out.

Couple the newly formed bowl with a few thousand years' worth of snow melt that had no means of escape, and you have a pristine lake. At almost 2,000 feet at its deepest, it's in the top 10 deepest lakes in the world, and it's near (if not at) the top in terms of clarity, turning it a vibrant blue when the sun hits it. It really is a beautiful lake.



I would have loved to hike down to it (remember, it's in a crater, and the lake surface is close to 1,000 feet down from the rim)... if the trail hadn't still been closed for the winter season. (At this point I'll remind you that it's late June.) I would have loved to drive the entire scenic drive that circles the rim... if 75% of it hadn't still been closed for the winter season. Shoot, I would have loved to hike more than 100 yards of the rim trail near the village... if it hadn't been under 3 feet of snow (but it wasn't closed!).

But as has been our theme lately, we played the hand we were dealt. We got the sled and the kids' snowsuits out, and we took advantage of what nature had to offer!


We'll just have to come back someday in September to get down to the lake and perhaps ride the boat out to Wizard Island.
Location: Crater Lake National Park, 1 Sager Building, Crater Lake, OR 97604, USA

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