Oregon’s Crown Jewel

 Crater Lake National Park is the only National Park in Oregon.  In 2011, there will be 17 free days at Crater Lake – the entrance fee is waived for visitors.  We have a sketchy plan to go to Crater Lake for our 30th anniversary – it is 30 years since I met the woman I married this summer.  (it’s also 15 years since we got divorced, but we are better friends now than when we were married)

Crater Lake is Oregon’s Crown Jewel, THE BEST of all the great beauty we have here:

This is Wizard Island, a small volcanic cone that lived after Mt. Mazama, the highest mountain in what is now the state of Oregon, collapsed in a series of highly catastrophic eruptions 7,700 years ago.  Humans SAW this happen – it is part of the Oral History of the tribes who lived in this area.

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C’mon.  Let me show you some of it:

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No rivers or steams feed the lake, and none drain it.  All of this tremendous amount of water came as rain and snow falling and filling the caldera of Mt. Mazama.  The level stays nearly constant, regulated by evaporation.

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From the west end of the lake, looking southeast.

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That spec in the water above the island is one of the two boats that tour the lake in season.  These are electric boats.  Crater Lake has some of the purest water on the planet, and nothing is allowed to pollute it.

Ah, but last year, some visitors stopped at one of the overlooks, and the driver forgot to set the Emergency brake.  Their dog was inside the car as they got out to look at the lake.  Your first view of Crater Lake is a WOW! experience.  Perhaps the dog wanted to share his master’s experience.  One way or another, the car rolled OVER THE CLIFF and tumbled nearly 1,000 feet into the lake, the first time that has happened in over 70 years.  About 700 feet down, as the couple watched in pure horror, the dog escaped out the open sunroof of the car, and he made it back up to his masters.  The car was absolutely destroyed.  The engine, the heaviest morsel left of the now dismembered car, landed in the lake, and was plucked out by helicopter a few days later.

If you come here, set your brakes.  Say "WOW" as you look at the magnificent lake below you and don’t worry about your car rolling, because it is not the way you want to get on the news.

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It is over a thousand feet down to the lake surface from here – more than 300 meters.  The bottom of the lake is another 1,936 feet down, and Crater Lake is the deepest lake in North America, and the seventh deepest in the world.

It’s like, totally awesome dude.

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South of the lake, ash from the eruptions buried the land all around.  These formations come from that time, when Fumeroles, hot gases vented up through the ash, created these spires that remained after the ash blew or washed away, over the centuries:

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Thanks for stopping by!

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One last farewell shot:

 

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