Crater Lake area

We have been blessed with great weather - sunny, low 80's and slight breeze. It dips down at night so we have been running the heat pump since we don't have any dogs to keep us warm. This RV park has a lot of full-timers/permanent residents and most are in 5th wheels. But our site is nice and we have everything we need.

Today was our trip to Crater Lake and part of the Umqua-Rogue River area. We packed drinks and sweatshirts and off we went. The road seemed to go on forever. It is great to see the big tall Douglas fir but after 10 minutes of driving through the trees, it does get a bit boring. We were hoping to see some wildlife or even Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. But all the animals were elsewhere.








Then we came upon the Rogue River Gorge and pulled in to check it out. The rocky chasm is narrow and the water rushes through with quite a roar. The mist at some spots creates a rainbow. This was a very pleasant stop to break up the drive.









Finally we arrived at the entrance road to Crater Lake. As we went up in elevation, snow banks started to appear along the road. First in patches and then some serious snow! Of course it was blackened from the road dirt but it was still a beautiful contrast to the evergreens. We had learned on the internet this morning that the rim drive was not open but we could get to the Inn and Discovery Point. We had expected this to happen since late may is "early" for visiting Crater Lake.
















Our first stop was the visitors center where the snow was about 8 ft deep at the entrance to the building. We watched a short video about the snow removal efforts in the park. Anyone who is afraid of sharp drop-offs along a road had better not apply for a snow removal job here. They have copper wire embedded in the road and sensors in the plows and frontend loaders. But, it was scary seeing them clear the road where there are dropoffs on either side. There was also a video about how the lake was formed, some factual and some mythical information about the volcano and some information about how it was discovered.










By this time we were getting hungry so we headed to the Crater Lake Inn for lunch. The building has been restored and is very pleasant. Our waitor is from Massachusetts and must have been having a bad day. He messed up our order and it took forever to get our food, we were not offered additional coffee till long after we had finished and the bill was also slow in coming. Needless to say the tip was a comment on his service!







We walked to the observation deck on the front of the Inn but it was hard to see the Lake because of the high snow banks. So off we went to Discovery Point for an unobstructed view of the lake. All the tour books mention the blue color and they were not wrong. It was beautiful. We think the snow enhanced the view and took a lot of photos (again thankful we are taking digital photos and not spending for film and developing).







The road was closed above Discovery Point but we could walk up the road as far as we wanted to go. We walked for some distance but when we saw the road open far ahead, we decided we would not reach the area where they were clearing snow so we turned back. A lot of people had written messages in the snow bank and we saw this one and thought it could be appropriate for us. A couple spoke to us as we were returning to the car. They are from New Jersey - Sussex County! They were familiar with the Hershey area and he has a brother who lives north of Palmyra.








When we left Crater Lake, we decided to venture further north to Diamond Lake. We stopped along they way at the Mt. Mazama viewpoint and met people from Bend, OR. The women is originally from PA and graduated from Millersville. Later we viewed Mt. Thielsen's craggy peak. It is different than the other mountain peaks we have seen. Diamond Lake was a disappointment after seeing Crater Lake. It is more of a recreational site.







On the road to Diamond Lake we had a real thrill- a bald eagle was soaring overhead. Of course, the photo did not turn out as we would have liked as we were buzzing along at about 50 MPH, but it was a thrill seeing the eagle in the wild. We did see a few mule deer and turkeys but their presence was definitely topped by the lone eagle.









At one of our stops this friendly chipmunk crawled under the van and then came out to pose for pictures before scampering off into the woods. It is different that the ones at home - larger and more stripes I think. But just as cute.

Tomorrow we are heading south to the California redwoods. Now those will be some BIG TREES. BTW, regular unleaded was $2.559/gal this morning. Diesel is actually cheaper at $2.439/gal.