Crater Lake National Park

Ask yourself, and try to imagine -- what is the bluest blue you can see in your mind's eye? Navy? Sapphire? Royal Blue? I bet it doesn't even approach the depth of color of Crater Lake. It's like a whole 'nother color. The depth of the lake (1,949' at it's deepest, on average) and the lack of sediment (being almost wholly snowmelt and rain), contribute to its intense blue hue.

The Crater Lake caldera was formed by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama, about 7,700 years ago, creating the deepest lake in the US, and what we believe is the most beautiful lake we've ever seen.

We left Lava Beds pretty early so we could get a first come first serve campsite at Mazama Campground. The NPS website stated that in the month of June, all campsites were first come-first serve. We arrived at the camper store around 9:30 AM and went inside to see what the deal was. A very helpful lady let us know that 75% of the campsites were reservable the day of, online, while the other 25% were available for walk-ups, which are released at 12 noon. She advised us to jump on the guest network and check the website for reservations. We confirmed the line should start by the front door and we sat our butts first in line.

We got on the website but the availability system wouldn't load. The text of the page did say however that 75% of the campsites were reservable in advance, while 25% would be available for walk-up. Hmmm.

We weren't sure if the wi-fi was poor or what, so I just called the reservation line, who then informed us their reservation system was down and to try calling back in 30 minutes to an hour. I called back a couple times and eventually the system was back up. The lady on the phone told me they switched the campsites to reservations a few days prior and that only 10% of the campsites would be available for walk-ups. She wasn't showing any availability for tonight or tomorrow night, but had availability for Sunday. We went ahead and booked Sunday because we weren't sure of securing a walk-up for three days.

We sat and waited in the line some more and people started to show up and queue up behind us. I overhead a park employee say that they (the concessioner that runs the campground) changed the campsites to reservation without telling anyone, and it was causing a lot of confusion. I had four differing sources on how to reserve a campsite so that should tell you about the mess.

These young folks -- going into their third year of college -- came up and asked us if we knew how to play bridge or euchre. Nope! But they would teach us -- and Vitali sat down and learned how to play euchre. They were on a roadtrip too -- all friends from high school, studying psychology, biology, religious studies and art history. Their bright faces not yet weary from life in the real world...

Then, this other guy behind them kind of joined in the conversation. Turns out he is here with his son from Maui, section hiking the PCT. I asked him about the safety of camping on the Big Island, as there was some sketchy stories from ten years back on the internet. He said it was totally fine, so that was reassuring.

Eventually 12PM came around and the park employee said they had eleven campsites available. Perfect! There were eleven groups waiting. We were assigned site E4, which was very small and squeezed between two other sites, but not too bad. At least we got a site. They weren't able to put our third night in there, but when we went and checked two days later they were able to transfer the reservation so we didn't have to move, so it worked out perfectly.

We got our site set up and decided to head up to the Rim Village to check things out. We found the bookstore that had our collectible items, got the stamp, and walked to the sidewalk that overlooked the lake. Wow. Breathtaking color. Rarely in broader landscapes are things so intensely colored.

We did get a good look at the other tourists and realized that this place is very similar to the Grand Canyon. A lot of people here just to look over the edge and then back to their cars. That's too bad, as the hiking here was excellent.

We drove back to camp and Vitali got the chance to hang out with the Hawaiian and company.

The next morning, we started up early and hiked Mount Scott. We headed counterclockwise on the East Rim Road, which coincidentally had just opened up for the season the day we arrived, and stopped by the Cloudcap overlook before proceeding to the mountain. Watchman Peak and Garfield Peak were both closed, so this was the only option that had a view of the lake.

The trail was excellent, not a lot of loose gravel or large rocks. The view from the fire lookout was spectacular. We ran back down and my knees didn't hurt! Yay!!

After that we stretched and then stopped by Pumice Castle Overlook (looked kind of like Bryce Canyon) and then drove over to the Pinnacles Trail. This walked along the top edge of a canyon where the thick layer of ash had eroded over time. The pinnacles were formed by fumaroles (steam vents from the magma below), that 'welded' the interior ash surface of the vent. As the overlaying ash eroded, these welded pinnacles were all that was left.

Then we stopped by Plaikni Falls, a short 2 mile RT hike to more beautiful waterfalls.

Then we stopped by the Phantom Ship Overlook which had a great view of a rock formation that appears to be a ship sailing away. We proceeded a bit further and did the Sun Notch Trail, a short walk to another overlook of the Phantom Ship. I was six seconds shy of the course record... if only I hadn't stopped to take pictures...

Finally, we stopped by Vidae Falls, another beautiful waterfall, this time roadside. We were already feeling the effects of the massive heat dome that hammered the PNW. The average high at Crater Lake (6,000' at Mazama Village) for the month of June is 58. For July, 68. It was maybe 80 the day we got there, then 90s the rest of the time.

We made it back to camp, ate dinner, and then went to find a good spot to watch the sun set. We headed clockwise on the West Rim Road this time, and drove all the way around until we found a good spot, almost back to near Cloudcap overlook on the east side, where we had started the day. I was excited to watch the sunset because there were a few clouds in the sky that afternoon but by the time the sun set (8:51PM), there were no clouds left. There was also a huge colony of mosquitos, who totally ignored the DEET in our bug spray, and our bodies became a delicious buffet.

The next morning we went and did a portion of the Rim Trail, starting at the visitor center, to a little past Discovery Point (where the alleged first discovery of the lake was made). We intended to go further but we didn't have any information on the length of the trail until we found a sign along the trail. It was longer than we wanted to do so we decided to head back and drive Numa to where there was LTE so we could book some more things for our Tour de Hawai'i.

After that we stopped by the Watchman Overlook, which was pretty busy. For good reason -- the view from had a spectacular view of Wizard Island. 🧙

The day we arrived to Crater Lake the dusting of pollen on the surface of the water was very fine. By the last day, it was full on rafts of the stuff, which added a very nice contrast of color to the blue of the water.

Wizard Island, which is such a badass name for an island! The story of how it was named is not as interesting as you'd hope -- William Gladstone Steel named the crater on top 'Witches Cauldron' and named the island 'Wizard Island' at the same time, had spectacular cerulean shades near its shores. You can normally take a boat ride out there but the boats were not running because the Cleetwood Trail (the ONLY trail to the water) was closed for repairs after winter.

We read on a sign that there were an estimated 80,000 kokanee salmon and rainbow trout in the lake and Vitali was very excited. When we saw that the Cleetwood Trail was closed there was tremendous disappointment. Vitali speculated that the fish plotted a trail closure to prolong their own existence.

That afternoon we hung around camp and did a test pack of our two backpacks for our bikepacking trip. Our packs are 40L with a detachable 13L daypack. This is on the small side for multi-day backpacking, but because we aren't bringing any sleeping bags, everything fit really well. We figure it's warm enough to get by with our liners and our 4 season tent. Although I do suspect the tent will be very hot with the fly but it's the only one we have, and the fly is required for the rain. We will use some fancy straps my Dad bought us for Christmas to strap the packs to a rear cargo tray on our rental bikes.

The next morning we had some time to hang out since we couldn't check into our hostel in Bend until 3PM, so we fit in two more hikes.

The first was into Annie Creek Canyon adjacent to the campground, which has carved 200' down into the ash. It was a nice little trail, and the stream at the bottom was beautiful.

We walked back to camp, packed up, and then headed back up towards the Rim Village. We stopped at the historic Visitor's Center and Post Office and started on the Lady of the Woods Trail. There was a trail guide available for this one that did a really excellent job of describing the landscape architecture at the park headquarters. Apparently landscape architects designed the structures! I was surprised. The trail guide mentioned in passing that the history of "rustic architecture" so common in our national parks actually dates back centuries, and in other countries too, and then didn't expand on it. I was disappointed there wasn't more information, but at least the trail was nice and the architecture was beautiful.

The lady of the woods was carved in stone and is one of the only things still standing from the original park headquarters period of the 1940s.

The master stonemason was present for the placement of the stones in the primary buildings. Beautiful 'Parkitecture'. It was about 10AM at this point so we decided to hit the road. Another spectacular park. I didn't have too high of expectations just because the park is focused on a single lake. My expectations however were surpassed and we'd definitely visit again. Hopefully next time the Cleetwood Trail will be open!