What a glorious day! Brilliant sunshine, no clouds, very little wind and a temperature in the low 20s. I can’t imagine too many better places to spend a day like today than in Crater Lake NP. Because of the conditions the views of the lake, no matter from what position or angle, were simply outstanding. The colour of the water was just the prettiest blue imaginable and because there was no wind the reflections were picture perfect.
We began the day with a short hike (spotted three deer so Helen was very pleased) and a film on the history of the park.
This was followed up with a two hour tour of the lake rim in a gas-powered trolley bus and led by one of the park rangers. He was absolutely brilliant – extremely knowledgeable and entertaining in his presentation. My betting is that he was a teacher in a “previous life”. We were surprised to learn that he is only employed for the 3 or 4 months of summer and has to find his own employment for the remainder of the year. The fact that he has been coming here for 18 years reinforced his love for the park and helped explain the professionalism of his presentation. The trolley bus tours only started operating in July and the NP people are hoping to make them a highlight of a visit to Crater Lake. It was well worth every cent of the $22 per head.
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| Phantom Ship rock |
After the tour we had a quick lunch and set out on our own rim excursion and were able to get photos of some of the places the tour missed. Two of the interesting sights were a rock formation in the lake called the Phantom Ship, which looked just like a sailing ship, and the Old Man of the Lake – a floating log about a metre above the lake surface which moves around the lake with the fluctuating currents.
All in all it was thoroughly enjoyable day.
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| The Pinnacles |
I think I’m falling in love with pine forests. From those in Yellowstone, to those around Bend and here at Crater Lake (and those we saw in BC in 2007), they are just very different environments to the eucalypt forests we have at home. The dark green colours, shade, coolness, softness underfoot, smell – there’s just something appealing about them.
It is with a little sadness that I realised today our driving tour is almost over (one week to go). We’ve seen so many interesting and amazing things and so much incredible scenery that the memories will last forever. On the other side however is the pleasure and anticipation of seeing Tony and Cyndy in a week’s time.
