Crater
Lake Area in Oregon – 6.28.18
to 7.6.18
We spent eight
nights at Big Pines RV Park in Crescent, Oregon, about an hour south of Bend,
Oregon. We stayed a few times in past years. Last year when we were here in the
fall, the wildfires were so bad we could not even go outside, let alone see
Crater Lake. So, we fit it in our schedule this year and hoped the weather
would cooperate!
The RV park is
family-owned and has lots of pine trees. We had a long satellite-friendly site.
The park is being expanded with more big-rig friendly sites. The park is a nice
location between Crater Lake and Klamath Falls to the south and Bend to the
north. A quail with baby chicks hurried across the street.
Mike grilled out
several times during our stay, T-bone steak one night, and burgers on the 4th
of July.
Crater
Lake National Park
The weather was in
the 70’s during our stay. The morning we decided to see Crater Lake it was 35
degrees in the morning and reached mid-60’s during the day! Perfect weather for
driving around Crater Lake and hiking some trails. The park still had patches of snow along the shores of the crater and up into higher elevations.
Crater Lake National Park is 183,000 acres and was established in 1902. The park protects the deepest lake in the United States. Fed by rain and 43 feet of snow per year, the lake is the cleanest large body of water in the world. The water is exceptional for its clarity and intense cobalt blue color.
The lake is 1,943
feet deep and rests inside a caldera formed approximately 7,700 years ago when
a 12,000-foot-tall volcano collapsed following a major eruption. Mount Mazama
is the volcano that collapsed to form Crater Lake. Mazama lost 5,000 feet of mountain top when the caldera imploded. The eruption may have been
the largest in North America in the past 640,000 years. Later eruptions formed
Wizard Island pictured below, a cinder cone near the southwest shore.
Old-growth forests
blanket the volcano’s outer slopes, harboring a wide variety of plants and
animals. We stopped at the Rim Visitor Center to see The Sinnott Overlook, our
first view of Crater Lake.
We stopped at
several overlooks along the 33-mile drive around the rim of Crater Lake. It is
one of America’s most scenic byways, with spectacular views. Our first stop was
Discovery Point along the West Rim. It was near this spot, on the back of a
mule in 1853, that gold prospector John Hillman became the first
European-American to stumble across what he called “Deep Blue Lake.”
Watchman Overlook
had an unmatched view of Wizard Island, a cinder cone that erupted out of
Crater Lake approximately 7,300 years ago. We ate a picnic lunch in the Jeep as it was too cold to eat outside! Mike captured a Clark’s Nutcracker that landed just over the Jeep. The birds feed on fresh seeds from the pine cones of the Whitebark pines.
Here is Sharon at the Devil’s Backbone overlook. It is a vertical wall of dark andesite lining the cliff face and measuring about 1,000 feet long by 50 feet across near the top. A dike formed by molten lava that created and filled racks, as it forced its way up through the rock and then solidified. It has been left standing by the erosion of the surrounding material. Of all the dikes on the walls of Crater Lake, only one, the Devil's Backbone, reaches from the water's edge to the rim.
We passed Llao
Rock, a vertical cliff capped by pumice from the caldera-forming eruption. It was produced from a vent on the upper slopes of Mazama and hardened after moving only a mile or two. The dacite filled in a former explosion crater. This rock rises nearly 2,000 feet above the water - the highest vertical precipice on the rim - and was formed by the most massive single flow apparent in the caldera wall, with a maximum thickness of 1,200 feet.
At Pumice Point
Sharon sighted an Eagle, but he quickly disappeared! We saw Pumice Castle, a
narrow tower of reddish rock on the eastern caldera wall. It survives after
centuries of erosion.
Along the East rim
we stopped at Cloudcap Overlook which sits at the end of a 1-mile spur road,
the highest paved road in Oregon. With gnarled, twisted branches, the Whitebark
pines live at the highest elevations, surviving extreme temperatures and high
winds. The trees rely almost entirely on the Clark’s nutcracker for
regeneration.
Next, we took a
ranger-led hike to Plaikni Falls. Upon our arrival, Mike overhead a hiker ask
her friends to line up so she could spray them with bug spray. Mike took it
seriously and took his bug spray with him. While waiting for the ranger, Sharon
immediately got bit. The mosquitoes were swarming everywhere! Sharon wished she
had bought her head net! Once Mike sprayed us down life was good! Sharon asked the ranger how the mosquitoes
could live in cold weather at 7,500 feet. He replied that mosquitoes in the
park multiply in the snow melt.
It was an easy 2-mile hike. The ranger shared interesting information about the trees in the forest and the animals (including picas, bears and elk). As you would expect, there was a steep incline to reach the falls. The falls were amazing, with colorful wildflowers and blue butterflies. Snow melt is the source of Plaikni Falls’ water.
After the hike, we took a six-mile detour from Rim drive to Pinnacles overlook. We hiked the easy trail to see the 100-foot volcanic spires along the steep canyon cliffs. The Pinnacles are “fossil fumaroles” where volcanic gases once rose up through a layer of volcanic ash, cementing the ash into solid rock. As the surrounding ash erodes, the Pinnacles remain.
Once Mike got a cell signal, he called to make reservations for dinner at Crater Lake Lodge in Rim Village. The lodge first opened in 1915 and was renovated in the 1990’s.
We arrived an hour
early so we got comfortable near the fireplace and ordered a drink and
appetizer. Dinner was delicious. We both had the pork shank with mashed
potatoes and a Marionberry cobbler for dessert.
We were so surprised to see that the sky was full of clouds after such a clear day! We wanted to see the sunset over Crater Lake, so we drove back to the Cloudcap Overlook. We didn’t expect so many people! We were disappointed when we got out of the Jeep to be swarmed by mosquitoes! We waited in the Jeep until the sky turned orange. Sharon donned her mosquito net hat and camera and hurried out of the Jeep! Mike waited! After snapping a few photos, Sharon got back in the Jeep trying not to let too many mosquitoes in.
The sun had not yet set behind the mountain as it was covered by the clouds. We decided to leave and drive the winding rim road before it got too dark. Sharon was happy we left early! As it turned out we drove past an area on the West Rim on the other side of the mountain and there was the sun setting behind the towering trees in brilliant orange and blue colors.
It was a great day. We were so glad we returned to this area to see Crater Lake! It’s a national treasure worth seeing!
Newberry
National Volcanic Monument
During our stay we
also visited the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The monument encompasses
54,822 acres within the Deschutes National Forest. This tract of National Forest
System land was designated as a national monument in 1990 when Congress passed,
and President George H. W. Bush signed the locally inspired and crafted legislation
creating the monument.
Newberry is one of only 12 national monuments managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Newberry is the largest volcano in the Cascade Range. There are extraordinary Volcanic Wonders within the Monument, making it a great place to learn about Central Oregon’s fiery past.
Newberry’s eruptive history began with McKay Butte 400,000 years ago and created massive lava flows covering 1,200 square miles (about the size of the state of Rhode Island), producing lava tubes, and over 400 cinder cones and volcanic vents during it’s active periods. The last eruption was the Big Obsidian Flow just 1,300 years ago forming the youngest lava flow in Oregon.
We took a short
hike on a forested trail to the upper viewing area of Paulina Falls. The falls spills over the lowest point of
Newberry Caldera, plummeting 80 feet in a twin waterfall.
Newberry Caldera contains the crystal-clear East Lake and Paulina Lake and several lava flows. Sharon took a couple of photos of Paulina Lake. To get the birds eye view, we drove up a dirt road to Paulina Peak which crowns Newberry Caldera at its highest point of 7,984 feet. The views were spectacular!
Next, we drove up to the Big Obsidian Flow and ascended the stairs for a moderate hike on a one-mile loop with a 500-foot elevation gain. We navigated around and over black volcanic glass and stopped to catch amazing views of the surrounding peaks.
At another entrance was at the Lava Lands Visitor Center where we watched a movie and viewed the exhibits on the geology, ecology, and history of the Newberry Volcano.
We took a shuttle to the summit of Lava Butte that rises 500 feet above its 9 square-mile lava flow. It erupted 7,000 years ago and is one of Newberry’s many cinder cones.
Then we drove on another dirt road and walked along a one-mile trail to see the Lava Cast Forest which formed when a lava flow overtook an old-growth forest and cooled to form casts of the trees that once stood there. There were many tree casts, smaller lava tubes and sweeping views of the area.
Our adventure continues as we travel Northeast to explore Osburn, Idaho. Then we head east to Bozeman, Montana where Mike will go fly fishing with a guide on the Yellowstone River. After that we head north past Helena, Montana to an RV park in Cascade, Montana. Sharon plans to do some site-seeing while Mike attends a three-day knife forging class! After that we head into Banff, Canada which we are really looking forward to! Finally, we will head East toward upstate New York, Bar Harbor, Maine and then down the coast toward Sarasota, Florida for the winter.
Until next time, have
a great summer! Drop us an e-mail. We always enjoy hearing from you!
Mike & Sharon
“Write it on
your heart that every day is the best day in the year.“
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
