Crater Lake

What an absolutely perfect day. It started at 6:30am when the alarm went off. We headed 102 miles south to Crater Lake hoping to get there before the thunderstorms arrive (per the weather forecast). Prior to arriving at Crater Lake we passed the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Curious as to what it was,  we turned in and was pleasantly surprised with what we found- lava beds and the core of a very old, extinct volcano. the Newberry Volcano. It was designated a National Park on November 5th, 1990 and reminded us of the lava beds in Hawaii.

Leaving Newberry National Volcanic Monument we arrived at Crater Lake around 10am after a good, uneventful journey. We were greeted by this wonderful sight:

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The lake was smooth as glass and had not a hint of ripples on it making it a photographer's delight. We were so lucky with the weather and had beaten the forecasted thunderstorms that arrived around 1pm whilst we were eating a nice lunch at the Crater Lodge. The thunderstorms even brought hailstones with them.
The crater was formed 7,700 years ago when the volcano erupted and the volcano walls collapsed into the hot lava. One part of the crater sides was made up of pumice. Boy, could it remove a lot of
dry skin from one's feet!!! The lake is the deepest in the U.S. being 1,943 feet deep at the deepest point. The tallest point on the rim is 1,978 feet above the lake, the lowest point 507 feet. The crater is 6.02 miles across at the maximum point and 4.54 miles at the minimum.

Crater lake gets 44 feet of snow per year often burying the lodge up to the first floor in a single snow storm. I had Gary stand next to the snow plough guides and you can see how tall they were.

We had our picture taken with a reflection of the lake in the background. I thought it was a nice photo of both of us.

On the way down from the lake we passed a roller skater doing 35mph downhill. He was either very brave or very stupid, I am not sure which.

After our visit to the crater, we made our way to the Redwoods in California. We passed a gorge which was very picturesque. There was a walk along side of the gorge and I was pleased to be able to catch a small rainbow at one point.

The gorge had huge rocks at either side of the stream and out of the rocks were growing trees, large trees. Apparently, they bury their roots very deep into the rock and suck out what moisture they can.

What would a blog be without a photo of a bird? It was a Clark's Nutcracker, a bird that is native to the western half of the U.S.

We had a really lovely day today. The weather was with us, the food was great and the journey to the Redwoods in California, interesting. Tomorrow, we visit the Redwood National Park.