Crater Lake National Park, Oregon - June 26th & 27th

From the Oregon Coast we headed inland a few hours to Crater Lake National Park, which we’d heard was incredible. It didn’t disappoint! The drive to the park was also beautiful, with lush green forests and a river winding its way alongside the road.

Crater Lake is an alpine lake which formed inside a crater when a massive volcano collapsed (they say about 9000 years ago) – it’s about 6 miles across at its widest, and the rock walls around it are super steep and rise up to 2000 feet above the water. The lake is the deepest in the US (7^th deepest in the world), at 1943 feet deep, and is also one of the bluest lakes (different to regular alpine lakes, with a deep dark blue colour).

The first thing we saw when we got into the park and to an overlook was a jaw-dropping view of the lake (of which photos REALLY don’t cut it – go and see for yourself!) – then we got distracted by a chipmunk (which we’d been trying to take photos of as we saw them sprinting around in the distance) trying to beg for food from people nearby… So we got a little excited about that, and may have dodgily given it some food… but it was SO cute!!

We’d arranged to meet up with our friend Shani, who lived near us in Wollongong for the first half of this year – but we somehow didn’t think about the fact that we wouldn’t have any phone reception in the National Park, and therefore couldn’t let Shani know where we’d be staying! So a little annoyed at ourselves, but seeing as there really wasn’t much we could do apart from wait and hope that she’d turn up here we happened to be, we left a message with the campground office, as to where we were staying the night and where we were heading now (back to the lake itself, to see the sunset).

So after a lovely sunset over the mountains, and freezing our fingers off at the lake (according to our car it was about 9°C, but that was definitely without the wind chill factor, which would have been pretty decent! We were contemplating digging out our snow gloves…). After the sun had well and truly disappeared, we headed back on the steep windy road to the campsite, and Shani and her mum Loretta were there waiting, having got the message at the campsite, which was great (but sorry for keeping you waiting!).

After introducing Loretta to vegemite the next morning, which was bright & sunny with clear skies, we headed back to the lake and then hiked a few kilometres up (small) mountain next to the lake – Garfield Peak, whose summit is 8054 feet (2455m) – the lake itself is at an altitude of about 6173 feet (1882m), so it wasn’t quite as big as it originally sounded! But we did notice the altitude a little bit (either that or sitting in the car for a couple of weeks has really made a difference…). Part of the hike up and down the mountain was on snow (in summer! Crater Lake is fed entirely by snowfall, averaging 533 inches a year! Which I worked out to be about 13m I think?) – so Lawrie and I had lots of fun launching ourselves back down part of the walk in the snow J

We also hiked down to the water’s edge, in the one spot where that’s possible – so the walk down was fantastic, the water beautiful (looking, that is, I’d rather not think about the temperature!) and the walk up not quite so great (steeeeep, and was getting a little too warm for tracksuit pants around then!)

It was a fantastic way to see the park, and we’d highly recommend going out of your way for it if you’re ever over the West Coast of the US! It was also great to catch up with Shani again, and to meet her Mum, and spend time with them both! (Sorry it wasn’t longer, and thanks so much for coming out to meet us there!)