Road Trip: Crater Lake National Park

One of my life goals is to see all of the National Parks here in the United States.  After that, I want to see all of the National Parks around the world.  But high on my list of parks to see first is Crater Lake National Parks.  I have heard a lot about Crater Lake in the news and various articles.  Friends and family have also visited the park, which has also lent to a huge desire to go.  Additionally, the park is only in the next state!

So our road trip definitely needed to include Crater Lake in the itinerary.  Here are some bits and bobs about our trip...

Getting to Crater Lake is not easy.  You will find yourself driving for hours to what feels like nowhere.  In fact, there were several times when I checked my Garmin to ensure it was still working properly.  And, at one point, I thought I was going to run out of gas.

It isn't as if the drive isn't pretty.  There are a lot of what you see above and below.  There is also a lot of charred earth and trees from wild fires past, but I elected not to photograph those images.

After a few turns, you'll enter the mouth of the park.  There, you see this vast expanse of trees, yellow grass, and blue mountains in the background.  Gorgeous, isn't it?  I can tell you that at this point, I was smiling widely and getting very excited (think kiddies on Christmas morning).  My only fear was my camera batteries would run out of juice or I didn't bring enough image cards.

This was my first view of the lake.  Now, I believe it is important to point out the day was extremely overcast and we arrived late in the afternoon.  Because of this, everything seemed very dark.

 

The image above does a pretty good job of showing the cloud cover.  This resulted in the water appearing quite dark and the view feeling incredibly gloomy.

 

This is probably the best image I took of Crater Lake.  It seemed lighter, at least, and gave a good view of Wizard Island.  Some little tid-bits about Crater Lake... It was actually formed when the volcano blew and is considered sacred to local Native tribes.  The Lake contains no minerals in it, which is why you can often see the floor - at certain depths.  Additionally, studies have shown that light can penetrate as far as 400 feet down - a substantial depth.

Crater Lake was beautiful, but I admit to being disappointed.  I don't know if it was the weather or the hype, but I was expecting more and felt like I walked away with less.  Mum, who saw the lake when she was much a kid, believe we need to go back in the summer - when the sunshine hits the water - so we will do that.  However, it won't be for a while.  I have other parks that are high priorities on my list.