Today we left for Crater Lake. We took Hwy. 42 to Hwy. 138. It was wonderful drive. We followed the Umpqua river part of the way and it is gorgeous. We checked in got settled and Bruce took a nap. The scenic routes are a lot of work for him, but he says it's worth it. When he got up we decided to take a drive. We ended up doing the rim drive. It is a real nail biter. Some of the road has nothing but a white line on the side and part of it is broken off. We stopped at some of the overlooks and planned our trip for the next day. The lake is the most amazing blue. It changes at different times of the day. The next day we headed back up. Bruce hugged the center line more and it was much more enjoyable. We took a 1 mile hike at 6,000 ft. altitude. We were proud of ourselves, but when we checked into doing the boat trip on the lake and found out you had to hike down to the lake and back up and they stressed the fact that you had to get yourself back up to the top we decided we would stop at our 1 mile easy hike.
The Umpqua river. We followed most of the way to Crater Lake.
On the way to Crater Lake.
Our first view of the lake. Awesome!
They call this the Wizards Hat. It is actually the lava dome that the volcano was trying to build but ran out of steam.
Notice how the trees only have branches on one side.
These trees are infected with bark beetles. They try to fix themselves by overgrowing bark and creating these lumps. There is no cure for this disease.
You pass through this area called the pumice desert on the way to the lake. This was covered with
pumice and ash more than 200 ft. deep in some places when Mt. Mazama exploded. It doesn't have much organic matter so nothing grows. Just recently some lodgepole pines have started to take hold.
I'm pretty sure Disney was here!
Flowers always find a way to grow.
They don't give you much road space.
You see these poles all over the park. They are so they know where the roads are in the snow. They get around 500 inches of snow each winter. They start plowing snow in April and hope to have it done by July 1.
We took a small side trip to see the Rogue River Natural Bridge.
Water going in.
Water flows below this area.
Water comes out.
We finished our day with dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge. This is from the porch at the Lodge.
Big day!
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