Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

When Tim, Rich, and I went to visit Crater Lake National Park in March, we couldn’t really see anything. There was 130% of the annual snowfall on the ground at the time…over 13 feet of snow. We went snowshoeing and had a blast, but didn’t get anywhere near the rim or the lake. While I was driving home to Montana from San Diego, I decided to take a brief break and do a 2 hour trolley tour around the rim and see what we missed in the early spring. Even though there was a lot of smoke in the air from wild fires in western Oregon, I thought it was absolutely mesmerizingly beautiful.

I took some notes when I was on the trolley to share with you. The rim and lake is actually a caldera (where a volcano’s center has collapsed upon itself). The lake is 1943 feet deep. If you place the Eiffel Tower, stack the Washington Monument on top of it, then the Statue of Liberty on top of those two, you would still have about 60 feet of water above the torch until you reach the surface. It is not the deepest lake in the world, but it is one of them. The water is incredibly clear. There is no sediment or anything foreign that goes into the water. The water is from rain and snowmelt only. Nothing runs into the lake due to the rim. Every summer, the rangers and scientists lower an 8 inch radius disc attached to a rope into the lake. You can see the disc 130 feet down easily. It is one of the clearest lakes in the world. It is pretty cold. Once you are more than 10 feet below the surface, the temperature drops to 38 degrees. In the warmest part of the year in August, the surface temp is about 55 degrees. Why is it so blue? It is the sun reflecting back from the sun. Is there fish? They introduced several kinds of fish in the lake in 1890 to promote more visitors. Only two kind survived; rainbow trout and kokanee salmon. The trout grow to about 20 inches long and the salmon around 18 inches. There is also crayfish (they were introduced to the lake on purpose but sadly, they have almost destroyed the only indigenous species in the lake, the Manzana Newt.) The only indigenous mammal around is the pika. The island in the lake is called Wizard Island. There is also this Hemlock log/tree that floats in the lake that is called The Old Man of the Lake. It is over 100 years old and floats vertically about 7 feet above the water. I was actually able to see it while we were on the tour. The guide said that one summer the Old Man of the Lake moved over 60 miles just from the lake currents. They also joke about the fact that the log actually controls the weather around the lake.

The scenery was amazing. I hardly did anything to these photos. I almost wanted to turn down the blue hues…but I wanted you to see what it looked like to the naked eye. It was crazy blue. If you get a chance to go…..you should! I have one odd ball photo in here…because this tree….fighting to survive the elements on the road up to Crater Lake National Park, just spoke to me.