Day 25 - 9/29 - Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park is northeast of the Medford region of Oregon. Gold Hill, the small town where we are camped, is at a lower level than Crater Lake which was formed by a volcanic eruption.

Armed with our lunch, water, a full tank of gas, and some rain, we set off a little after 9 o'clock for a 60-mile drive to the national park. We drove across the valley floor to make our ascent to the rim. Our first stop was the obligatory park entrance. We got a photo of us at the sign as our form of documentation.

One of the necessary functions is getting a photo of us at an

entrance to our tour location for the day. Oddly, the Crater Lake

sign doesn’t comply with the typical one but it does serve the purpose.

The small, green area in the center of this map is the boundary

of Crater Lake National Park. A high and mountainous

rim from the caldera surrounds the lake.

This is a more detailed map of the national park. We entered

the park at the arrow on the bottom and drove the roads

from one arrow to the other. It is 33 miles around the

entire perimeter but, due to closures, we couldn’t make that trip.

We entered Crater Lake through the West Entrance. From there we drove up to Rim Village and to an elevation of 7,100 feet. It was definitely rainy with foggy conditions. This and the low ceiling prohibited almost any view of the lake.

The photo (after enhancement) does show the outline of the lake

where it meets the mountain rim (edge of the water).

A bit fuzzy, huh?

Not to be denied a view of the lake, we headed on up the West Rim toward Watchman Overlook at 8,013 feet. Unfortunately, the views there were even more non-existent. So, we headed back toward the entrance and up the East Rim. Stopping at Phantom Ship Overlook, where the clouds we not an issue, we got our first view of Crater Lake and the Phantom Ship Island.

Phantom Ship resembles a small sailboat but is actually

as tall as a 16-story building. It is the oldest (400,000 years old)

exposed rock within the caldera. It is made up of erosion-resistant rock.

Crater Lake was formed in the plugged caldera of Mazama,

the massive volcano that shaped this area millions of years ago.

Since it was raining, we ate our picnic lunch in the car overlooking the lake and then headed up the East Rim for another two miles stopping at Victor View. It gave us a better view of the lake. The last stop was near Pumice Castle Overlook.

On the right side of this photo can be seen the pumice rock

that is on the southeast rim of the park.

Leaving the park, we drove along Upper Klamath Lake into Klamath Falls. We stretched our legs with a one-mile hike to the Link River Falls while in Klamath Falls, and no, there is no waterfall! All-in-all, we traveled about 200 miles on Friday!

A bronze statue at Klamath Falls Museum. The inscription reads:

“The Redman was the true American.

The history of how they fought for their country

is written in blood, a stain that time cannot grind out.

Their God was the sun, their church all outdoors,

their only book was nature and they knew all its pages.”

Between Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River is

a short channel of water called the Link River. There is

a section that features cascading water passages.