Crater Lake

                        We arrived at our Campground the day before our venture into Crater Lake National Park. This afforded us the opportunity to get an early start as the day promised to be one of superb weather which practically guarantees a voluminous crowd of visitors.

                        We were conspicuously situated at said Campground, designed with ease of Park access in mind, as it is situated only seven miles away from the North Entrance (!)….. until….

                        Fire!

                        Closed access roads!

                        Best laid plans went, literally and figuratively, up in smoke.

                        On to Plan B.

                        Get up even earlier because that seven-mile trek into the Park turned into a forty-five-mile sojourn enroute to the opposite side of the Park.

                        As we pulled up to the Official Park Entrance, we noticed that all of the cars in front of us were being denied entrance into the Park. This is not a good sign.

                        We pulled up to the friendly Ranger and handed her our Golden Access Forever ‘cuz We’re Senior Citizens Pass, and she proceeded to read our names on it. Ranger Smiley looked over at us, sort of confirming our identities, nodded in recognition, and then breathed a sigh of relief as she shouted over her shoulder, “They’re here!”

                        She handed our Credentials back to us offering an explanation at the same time, “We heard that you were in the area, and we’ve been turning everyone else away waiting for you to arrive. Now that you’re here we can close this gate and we can all go home, the Park is yours for today.”

          At least that’s what it seemed like.

                                                We were seemingly alone in the Park-of-the-Century on a day that any self-respecting Vacationer would kill for.

                      The photos will explain it all.

                                    When we use that over-exaggerating phrase, “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky,” we usually meant that the weather was really good and that an occasional friendly, puffy, cloud wafting overhead is welcomed.

                                     Not today!

                                                Here, where the water vies for First Place in the Bluest of Blues category, there was not ONE CLOUD ALL DAY!

                                    The day before we entered, we took advantage of arriving early enough to explore the surrounding countryside. There was definitely some fire-related activity as illustrated by some closed roads and the enormous Fire Camp just up the road. Luckily for us there had been a substantial rainfall a few days earlier that did two things, one, it squelched most of the fire and smoke, and two, it provided some more run-off to fill these waterfalls for us! There are six in total but because of fire, and distance, we only visited two.

                                    The next day, The Visit Day, was as previously mentioned, an incredible “on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest”, a fifteen(!) Weather Day.

                                    And yes, there was no one else there. At least for the morning. Some ho-hum “let’s get up at eleven and see what’s in the park” tourons got there later but by then the sun was high in the sky and the sights, however still grand, were somewhat diminished compared to the early morning views.

                                    In any event, we had the place to ourselves.

                        Crater Lake National Park is one of those experiences that must be done in person to appreciate it. There are no photographs, however fine they may be, that can convey the breathtaking features of this all-sensory encounter.

                             The colors.

                             The pine-scented airs.

                              The silence of the enormity.

                        Mix these all together on a picture-perfect day and you have an experience that is unforgettable!

                        So be ready for some nice photos, but be forewarned, this Crater Lake came about by way of our constant companion, Mr. Plate Tectonics and his friends and relations, so you will not only be treated to some great scenery, but you will also know and understand how this fabulous Park came to be!

                                    Or you can just look at the pretty pictures and hope that there won’t be quiz sometime in the future.

Your call!

                        Let’s start at the beginning and take a look at the mountain range that Crater Lake is part of. The Cascades run from northern California up into British Columbia and contain several mountains that we have all heard of…. Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood (which we visited two weeks ago) Mt. Shasta, and a host of others but here’s the one that brings it all into perspective… Mt. St. Helens.

                                    This Range is still considered “active” as illustrated by the relatively recent eruption of Mt. St. Helens ‘only’ 38 years ago, in 1986. In a business that registers its timeline in eons, periods, epochs, and ages, 38 years is not even a dinosaur’s eyelash in length. So that means anything can and will happen again.

                                    So what we see today is the remnant crater of a much larger volcano. About 400,000 years ago (we’re not exactly sure when Mount Mazama was born as her birth records were lost in another later eruption) a little bit of lava crept to the surface of the earth here and it discovered that it would much rather be up on the surface rather than down deep below. Calling all of its friends and relatives to join her, Mt. Mazama gained in elevation until she was about 12,000’ high.

                                    All was fine and dandy until roughly 7,700 years ago when the rest of her acquaintances rushed for the surface all together at the same time, building pressure until eventually they all went Kaboom! Since everyone vacated at the same time, there was no one left behind to hold things up and support everyone else, so the Great Collapse occurred. It all fell into itself forming a deep caldera (now known as Crater Lake) that took centuries to fill with rain and melted snowfalls. No streams, creeks, rivers, or any type of waters run into Crater Lake, thus helping to keep sediment and other nogoodniks from clouding this pristine, one-of-kind, natural wonder!

                                                Now you know all you need to know about how Crater Lake was formed and why it’s clarity is a world-record holder!

                                    “Hold on there Donny! How do you know that it’s a record holder and how in the world would one measure such a thing?”

                        I’m glad you asked that Mr. Fish-Finder!

                        The powers-that-be use a tool called a Secchi Disc. It was invented back in the 1800’s by Monsignor Angelo Secchi to be used to test and check the clarity of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a standard sized (12 inches for salt water, 8 inches for fresh water) black and white disc that is lowered into the water until it can no longer be seen. At that level, of whatever body of water you are testing, is the Secchi Depth, an internationally known and recognized standard.

                                    For comparisons purposes, the Secchi Depth of Lake Tahoe is half that of Crater Lake (about 75’) but that is still pretty good considering Lake Tahoe has boating, swimming, and a slew of towns that dot its shoreline.

                                    “Thanks for the explanation, Mr. Smarty-Pants, but we now want to know why it’s so blue!”

                                    I’m glad that you asked that one too, Mr. Monet!

 And to give you the reasons, and the whys, we’re going to have a Guest Lecturer. Someone that I’m quite sure that you’ve all heard of, Professor Roy G. Biv.

That’s an easy one! We all know that red light waves are at one end of the spectrum and the bluish ones are at the other end. When the sunlight hits the clear, very deep waters of Crater Lake, all of the longer reddish rays (the ones other than the short bluer ones) get absorbed by the waters. The shorter bluish ones get reflected back at us in their purest color because there isn’t any sediment in the water or any bottom that is shallow enough to reflect off of, so we see only the Blue Rays of sunlight when we look at the waters of Crater Lake!

And blue they are! This is one of the unique aspects of seeing Crater Lake under the best possible conditions. It is interesting trying to process photographs of Crater Lake as usually waters are not this blue. The sky may be, but not the waters! So, the aforementioned processing in my computer using Light Room, takes a bit of finagling so as not to have too much of anything and have the photo look fake!

                        I can assure you that these colors are, in fact, real and you need to see them for yourselves!

            Two years ago, we tried to visit Crater Lake in May only to find out the Park was still mostly closed because the snow was still hanging around.

In May.

Hence our trip here in August, which we figured was safe enough. It turns out that the entire park does not open sometimes until the beginning of July and is closed down again by the middle of October!

“Hey! So why does this place get so much snow?”

I’m glad you asked that one Ms. Meteorologist! But yours is the last question that we can entertain today! It’s all because of position. Crater Lake is on the crest of the Cascade Mountain Range which sits directly in the path of those wicked Northern Pacific winter storms that bear down on the Pacific Northwest and dump their precipitation on places like Crater Lake. They receive an annual snowfall that totals…..

(wait for it)……

Over fifty-five feet!

Now you can see how the Lake stays full without any streams, etc. running into it!

            Crater Lake National Park was established in 1902 making it our fifth oldest National Park. The Lake has a depth of an incredible 1,949’ and that figure ranks it as one of the deepest in the world. As mentioned before, some of the Park gets closed in the Winter, but as is usual for mostly all National Parks, it is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They do keep the road open to the Rim Visitor Center as much as possible. The height of the Snow Sticks is indicative of the road plowing process!

Crater Lake National Park is not easy to get to. There is not a nearby airport to fly into, or a major city to embark from. But a trip to this incredible place should be on your list. That list should include the rest of Oregon, maybe the places that we’ve shown, maybe more as there is still a host of other places to explore. Keep your suitcase packed for the return trip, which is looking more and more promising the more we experience Oregon!