We only stayed one night in the Crater Lake area. It was rainy and cold and the mosquitoes were the size of B-52s. Also, the nearest grocery store or RV service facility was at least 60 miles away. I hated the RV park, which was actually perfectly fine, but was in the middle of #$%!! nowhere. Moreover, it didn't have cable TV. Or any kind of antenna TV. Come on!!
Beau and I have decided that we are not really "campers." (I am sure many of our friends are laughing right now. As if we ever thought of ourselves as campers to begin with!) Anyway, we would describe ourselves as "travelers who like visiting luxury RV resorts in populated areas"!
Anyhoooo, knowing we were leaving the next day, we spent some time exploring Crater Lake National Park in the late afternoon. What we found was quite amazing and surprising. Idiot that I am, I expected both our campground (Diamond Lake RV Park) and Crater Lake itself to be touristy lake destinations. HAHAHAHA. Umm, NO! This is the wilderness, baby. A wilderness at 6,000+ feet, with huge snowdrifts and temperatures in the 40s in mid July.
YES, you read that correctly: TEMPS IN THE 40s.
Here is our dusty car thermometer to prove it:
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| A sample of the snow remaining in the park. That pile is about 20 ft. high! |
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| Hey hon, let's spend the summer at Crater Lake! And there will be lots for the kids to do... |
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| ...like sledding! |
Anyway, about the lake itself. Stunning. Astounding.
Formed by the collapse of a volcano called Mt. Mazama 7,700 years ago, the lake is basically a big caldera. It is 5 miles wide and ringed by cliffs almost 2,000 feet high. It is the deepest lake in the United States, at 1,943 feet. Later volcanic eruptions formed a small peak in Crater Lake called Wizard Island, shown in several of the photos below.
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| Note Wizard Island, the "mini volcano." |
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| We were unprepared for the cold weather. |
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| Nice road, huh? Guardrails are pretty much just a fantasy. |
We came, we saw the lake, and I said to Beau, "Get me the hell outta here." Ah, nature!
We are now ensconced in a beautiful luxury RV park in Newport, Oregon, with a terrific view of the Pacific Ocean right out the windshield.
Now THIS is my idea of camping! When we got here, the sky was blue and temps were about 70. YAY!
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| We get to enjoy a fire right at our table in the evening. And we don't even have to scavenge wood. |
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| Dinner by the ocean. |
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| The beach right below our RV site. |
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| The storms scoured out the coastline here, and many of the access stairways have been washed away, leaving steep cliffs above the beach. |
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| We rappelled down the cliffs to get to the beach below. (OK, maybe not this particular cliff, and maybe we did not rappel, but we had to go down a cliff nonetheless.) |
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| You can see the damage done by the recent storms. These homeowners must be a bit worried! |
I think we are both very grateful to be back in civilization again, at least temporarily.
AND I FINALLY CAUGHT UP ON THIS BLOG!!!! for now....
More on Newport in the next entry. We are here through the weekend.
Our best to all,
Tanks, Panky
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