Eastward mirrored view of Wizard Island (WI) from West Rim Drive
Who: M and Hank
What: A two day sightseeing road trip
When: June 6 & 7, 2016
Where: Crater Lake N.P. (CLNP)
Why: Check a box on my bucket list How: Hire car from Portland
Note about viewing pictures: Double-click on any picture for a full-sized gallery of all. There are a bazillion photos online, but I wanted to share ours with captions.
Note on text: I am typing one-handed due to shoulder surgery, so there will be minimum storytelling, which is probably not a bad thing. if you want a fuller account call me. If you know little about CLNP, do your own research. It's a massive collapsed volcano.
Ever since I read Boy Scouts at Crater Lake by Walter P. Eaton, published in 1922 during the formative years of the scouting movement in the US, I have had an aching desire to visit this place. Last month we traveled to Portland to visit the boy and his girl for about two weeks so we decided that we would take a couple of days, drive south for a few hundred miles and just do it. We spent two days on the trip but only Day One in the park arriving in the morning. It was early in the season, so much of the park was still inaccessible due to snow. I really just wanted to see it, so we spent much time just gazing from various vantage points. We overnighted in Chemult and on Day Two traveled back along less crowded roads with phenomenal landscapes of their own. The weather was extraordinary; see how it changes through the day as the images progress in chronological order.
View east across lake
South to north view with lunch - 5 miles across - still mirror lake surface
Time for a movie
From South Rim
Pollen swirls
WI eastern side
Rim outcropping, clouds building
Roof snow
Snow abounds
My Post Card Sequence
Think they will sell?
East side WI
Get out of the picture you old fart; rain at right
West rim
Beyond the rim
Mini-volcano, see the caldera?
How about now?
Nearby peak
In the Cascades
West Rim Road at The Watchman
On top of The Watchman
Across the rim road
A few wildflowers blooming
WI below snow-covered outcropping
On July 4th we watched A Capitol Fourth, a PBS TV production of entertainment and fireworks in and around the National Mall in DC. The program was sponsored in part by the National Park Service celebrating its centennial year. During the program a visual presentation showing many beautiful images of national parks was shown; when views of Crater Lake came on my throat tightened and tears flowed - We live in a truly wonderful country full of natural majesty and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to see this marvel of nature.
