Crater Lake, OR

October 1, 2016

Almost 8,000 years ago a volcano in the southern Oregon cascades blew its top, creating the deepest lake in the U.S.  The park around the lake is kind of in the middle of nowhere and the drive up is a little steep when you're driving an underpowered motorhome.  Whatever.  All those people behind me needed to slow down and enjoy the scenery anyway.

Or they would have enjoyed the scenery if the mountain volcano hadn't been covered in fog with a healthy dose of freezing rain.  The only thing that could have made the drive more exciting would have been construction that removed the safety wall from edge and ripped out the pavement on corners.

Oh, wait....  Yep.  Rough roads, low visibility and grouchy drivers wanting to pass me.  Although hiking the trails was off the table, the lake was as beautiful as advertised.

You even get the bonus volcano-within-a-volcano on this little island in the lake.  The rangers do a hike and boat trip to the island in the summer but no one was risking the steep trail as the snow was starting to stick.

I wanted to stay and see more of the park but the roads were just too scary.  And it was cold and wet.  Just not ideal sightseeing weather.  

There's no free camping within the park so I headed out the south entrance and down the mountain to find a place to sleep.  A couple miles out I found a picnic spot that was off the main road and had flat spaces to park in front of the tables.  I knew no one would be picnicking any time soon and confidently pulled up to the curb to make dinner.

Although it was chilly when we went to bed, it was freezing when we woke up.  And snowing.

This was the coldest we had been and I was a little leery of driving down snow covered roads even though I assumed they would clear up as I descended.  Driving in the snow AND the dark wasn't happening so I made myself a second cup of coffee to wait for sunrise and hopefully melting snow.  Instead it snowed harder.

Now I really wanted to get going so I walked out to the main road to see how many cars had driven over it already.  I also saw the sign informing me that I was still in the national park and overnight parking was not allowed.  Woops.  I guess I should have realized that such a nicely kept picnic area was not a national forest amenity.  Well now I really needed to leave before a park ranger found me and yelled at me.

Fortunately the air warmed up fairly quickly when the sun came out and the snow on the road turned to slush.  We left mid morning to head for the next adventure.