Crater Lake Visit - Part 1

We arrived here on Wednesday and decided that Thursday morning we would go to the visitor's center at Crater Lake and get the scoop on how best to visit the park, what is there to see, tours or talks by rangers, visit the gift shops, and see what hikes are duable.  And we did.  We also thought that maybe we would take the 3 hour boat ride on the lake but when we found out you had to hike 1 mile down to the water's edge and they say that the hike back up feels like 10 miles long because you are climbing up over 5000 feet to get back to terra firma, we said - no, no thanks.  This blog is about what we did on our first two times visiting the lake and the next blog will be more about the geology - some fascinating things to show you.

We went to the park's headquarters where they show the orientation video - good movie.  A couple of facts stick in my mind:  43 feet!!! of snow falls here every winter making it the most snowfal  place where people live year round in the United States; they have measured the depths of the lake to 1,943 feet deep and because it is so clear they have been able to see 143 feet down by the eye; oral history passed down through the native American's parallel known geological facts which means they witnessed this event; and from postcards and pictures you do not get the feel as to how big this lake is - 4 .5 miles to 6 miles wide.  Big!  Beautiful sapphire blue.

Wow 

That's alot of snow!

We talked to the Crater Lake Trolley tour company that for a fee will take you around the rim road and with a park ranger, provide a talk at each of the stops explaining what you are looking at, how the crater was formed, the history and discovery, etc.   We decided to do that tour yesterday and got on the 10am tour.  The tickets were worth our money.  We did not drive around the park on Thursday, only the west side which is where the visitor's center is located and the camp store, a place we try to go to at each of the national park's visits.  The camp stores are pretty cool - has gear for obviously camping, food, but has trinkets and small items for hiking that you do not typically find in the visitor's centers' gift shops.

Talk about blue!  Without going into much detail, the history of the crater started over 420,000 years ago with Mount Mazama's growing period of eruptions, lava flow, quiet, then more eruptions, to the height of 12,000 feet. Then 7,700 years ago the big eruption happened which took about 1 week to complete,  this time venting out all around the sides of the mountain as well as on top. With the blast that forced ash and pumice into the air 100 miles high and fallout as far north as Canada and east as far as Nebraska, the lava and gas below inside the mountain emptied out and the weight of the mountain fell down on itself within hours.  Can you imagine the sound and the quaking of that?  Then centuries of snow, ice, rain, filled up the crater that was left.  The water is pure - you could drink it because no streams or rivers flow in or out of the crater.  No impurities, very little plant life in the water, two fish species live which were introduced at the turn of the century, but no other fish.  Amazing that the water has been kept clean.  The blueness is from the sun's rays filtering through the water and absorbed (red, yellow, green) but the blue and violet colors are scattered and that's what we see.

Very Pretty

While on the tour we marked areas we want to come back to visit on our own which we will do another day.  This being the holiday weekend, the crowds have intensified 100 fold between Thursday and yesterday.  And our campground has filled. Will wait a day or two before visiting again.