Crater Lake National Park

As long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit Crater Lake National Park. I remember seeing pictures of the volcano when I was in grade school. It was a lake, on top of a mountain, with no streams into or out of the lake, it is filled with crystal clear water. To further the imagination of a youngster, there is an island, called Wizard Island.  Furthermore, it is also one of the deepest lakes in the United States, nearly 2000 feet deep.  All this plus, Crater Lake is a photographers dream, any time of year, especially when there is snow. 

Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park gets plenty of snow. All the water is derived from rain or snow, mostly snow.  The estimate is that the volume of water would take 250 years of precipitation to fill it – if there was zero evaporation. (evaporation assures us that it takes much longer than 250 years)  Thus the water has been at this very location for a long time.

Crater Lake is also amazingly clear. From one of my pictures, from miles away, looking at Wizard Island, you can clearly see the bottom and rocks lying on the bottom. (zoom lens and further zoom created by cropping the photo)  Scientist have measured underwater visibility, taken vertically at more than 175 feet.  The water clarity has created environments for plant life at depths far exceeding normal depths. Moss has been collected from depths of 600 feet. Normally plants can’t get enough light for photosynthesis at more than 100 feet.

Snow

Given the snow in the pictures, and the fact that when we arrived that only the road from the south was open, and the rim road was still closed, for most of its length; the Crater Lake National Park Campground was also closed.  Instead, we stayed at Crater Lake Resort, and it was nice enough but not nice enough to match the name “resort”.  This commercial RV park is located just south of Fort Klamath. The 30-mile drive to the park it was pretty. We made the trip multiple times. We even went to the park to catch the sunset and moonrise.

Boondocking

There is a boondocking site a few miles north of Fort Klamath that would have been acceptable, but we didn’t use it. The campsites in the National Park are available sometime in June, (depending on snow) with reservations available in July and August. I noted that they seemed very pricy compared to other National Parks.   Next time we are in the area I intend on staying at Collier Memorial State Park.

Here is a link to the google map for the area.

Link to our 2018 Route.

Link to our route Boise to Coos Bay

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