Vacation Day 6

Views of Crater Lake from the top

Day 6

August 3rd, 2009

We got to have a bit of a lazy morning this day, since we didn't have too much driving ahead of us. The original plan was for all of us to go up to Crater Lake together in Bud & Karen's motor home, but since they were in the accident, they had a doctor's appointment and insurance things to take care of, so they decided not to join us. We met them at Jack in the Box for lunch, (I LOVE their tacos, and am always so excited when I am in a town that has a Jack in the Box!). After lunch, Josh, Abbi, me, Mike, Marilyn and the dogs all headed to Crater Lake.

I had heard about Crater Lake - Josh remembered it from his childhood, but I really did not expect the beauty that I saw. I really think this is a place everyone needs to see in their lifetime.

Abbi enjoying getting wheeled around. I wish she would be able to remember this trip when she is older. We'll just have to come back and do it again when we are done having kids and they are old enough to enjoy it!

Instead of trying to describe how this lake occurred, I'll just copy from a sign at the lake:

Imagine the impressive snow-capped mountain that once stood here. Successive volcanic eruptions over many thousands of years had built a cone that rose perhaps a mile above the present lake level. Like Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens, it was one of the major volcanoes of the Cascade Range, and one of the most explosive - Mt. Mazama.

About 7,700 years ago a series of violent eruptions transformed Mt. Mazama. The volcano ejected large volumes of rock and ash high into the air. Then, great avalanches of hot, gas-charged rocks spilled down the slopes. Finally, the remaining upper portions of the volcano collapsed, creating the 6-mile wide caldara that now holds Crater Lake.

Breathtaking

It is a pretty impressive sight indeed.

The lake is almost 2,000 feet deep, the deepest lake in the United States. It is fed entirely by snow and rain and is considered to be the cleanest large body of water in the world. The eruption of Mt. Mazama may have been the largest eruption in North America in the last 640,000 years.

Nature is amazing!

The sides of the lake are very steep and fall quite far from the top. There is a trail that takes you down to the water, but we did not venture down. They actually have a boat that gives boat tours. They say you can swim in the water, but it is so cold that most people don't last more than a few minutes.

The sides are quite steep! And the water is an amazing color!

It truly was gorgeous. And the water really is that blue. None of the colors are photoshopped in these pictures. It was almost the color of the ocean off the Florida coast - but in a lake in Oregon!

Attempting more family photos

After spending some time at Crater Lake and taking about a million pictures, we headed back to Klamath Falls, where we met Bud & Karen for dinner at a restaurant there in town. Then back to their house where we enjoyed another night of hospitality.

Poor Max, he started limping around that night, and when we looked at his paw, it looked like it was either burned or rubbed raw. I think that he had just been on so many adventures over the last few days and he poor paws weren't used to all of it. I'm sure he was happy that this was our last day of "adventures."