Crater Lake

Ho hum…another day in Oregon, another caldera.

Crater Lake National Park is in what I would call the "penultimate tier" of national parks; not quite on par with Yellowstone or Grand Canyon but certainly more iconic than, say, Isle Royale or Petrified Forest.

There are no creeks or rivers flowing into the lake; and none flowing out. The lake is filled, primarily, by the 44 feet of snow that falls inside the caldera each year. As a result the water in the lake is some of the purest in the world and the signature, deep-blue color is a result of sunlight penetrating deeper into the water than normal, absorbing and then scattering the other colors of the spectrum, leaving mostly blue for the human eye to see.

The lake is six miles wide, nearly 2,000 feet deep.

We spent most of Wednesday there, including a ranger-led sunset hike. 

Interestingly, Ranger Brian is a 1992 graduate of William Jewell College in Dave's hometown of Liberty, Missouri. He says he got on a train the day after graduation and came to Crater Lake and has been working here as a seasonal ranger ever since.

The clouds that moved in Wednesday were a precursor of Thursday's storms.

Unfortunately, plans to hike to the highest point in the park on Thursday fell victim to stormy weather.

That is hail, not snow.

I would be remiss if I did not give some props to the beautiful Collier State Park where we spent the last three nights. It is a beautiful setting in a pine forest with an incredibly clear, spring-fed creek flowing through it and a very nice exhibit that details the evolution of the logging industry in Oregon.