Crater Lake Part 2

Thursday 7/12/12

After viewing a couple of falls and a gorge near Prospect, OR., we headed north back toward Crater Lake. We entered the south entrance into Crater Lake.

After entering into the park we stopped at Mazama Village. The village has a campground, gas station, and a store.

It also has lodging. The cabins have two queen beds and cost $138 a night. There are 4 cabins per building. The cabins do not have air conditioning or TVs, and do not allow pets.

Our next stop was at the Visitor Center at the south entrance in Crater Lake. We had to skip the film about Crater Lake, because we had Malllery and it was getting too warm to leave her in the car.

Next stop- Rim Village. View of  Llao Cliff, the highest point on the rim of Crater Lake at 8049.

I forgot to take pictures of Rim Village when Crater Lake came into view again.

There is a Rim Village Cafe, Visitor Center, and Gift Shop.

We didn't visit anything at the Rim Village, because we had sweet Mallery. We ate our sack lunch with a view better than any other in the country.

We took turns viewing Sinnott Memorial Overlook since dogs are not allowed.

There is a very short walk down to Sinnott Memorial Overlook.

Sorry if there are too many pictures of Crater Lake, but it's "My Blog", and this is my photo album also.

Looking down from Sinnott Memorial Overlook.

Mount Thielsen in the distance.

The eruption of Mount Mazama ( creating the caldera of Crater Lake) was 100 times greater than the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helen.

There was tons of information about Crater Lake at Sinnott Memorial Overlook.

Off on the east edge of Crater Lake is Phantom Ship which is one of the mountains original volcanic cones. Can you see it along the east side of the lake?

I zoomed in so you could see it better. It looks like a toy sail boat , but it is the size of a 14- story building  (160 ft).

It is called Phantom Ship, because one minute you will see it, then it disappears, only to reappear again, depending on the light.

The rim was a very busy place that day.

Crater Lake Lodge is also located in the Rim Village.

Rooms are book almost a year in advance at the lodge.

Lobby in Crater Lake Lodge.

I told Joe that when I win the big one, I am treating my family to a couple of nights at the Crater Lake Lodge. Room rates at the lodge are $193.99 for a 1 queen bed room, or $203.99 for a 2 queen bed room. Pets are not allowed at the lodge, and there are no TVs in the room.

View from Crater Lake Lodge deck.

The east road around the lake was still snowed in, so we could not drive around that side of the lake. Instead, we took the west road, the way we came in on.

At the North Junction we took the East Rim Drive toward Cleetwood Trail Boat Tour area. ( The road to Cleetwood is on the north rim of Crater Lake).

I was driving this area and not liking it. At several points I was driving down the middle of the road or the left side of the road because the road edge seemed to just drop into the lake. Yikes!

We made a stop and I got the zoom out to get a picture of the tour boats.

Clark's Nutcracker

We didn't have time to take a boat tour, but the boat tours were booked full anyway. If you want to do a boat tour, be sure to book a few days ahead. The trail down to the boats is a 1.1 mile trek down and can take 30 to 45 minutes. It can be very strenuous as the elevation drop is 700 ft. The trek back up can take more than an hour and the elevation climb is equivalent to climbing 70 steps.

If you do not want to drive around the lake, you can take the trolley. Sign up for the trolley rides at the Rim Village.

Joe and I both had enough of the scary roads so I turned the wheel over to Joe, and he drove back to North Junction.

At North Junction, we took the North Entrance Road to leave the park.

Mount Thielsen view as we drove the North Entrance Road.

Once out of the park we turned east on Hwy 138 for about 15 miles to Hwy. 97. At Hwy. 97 we turned north for about 20 miles to Hwy. 58. We wanted to take a different route back to Junction City, OR.

There were several lakes off of Hwy. 58, so we pulled off the road in search for a couple of them.

We found Crescent Lake Resort, to view the lake and check out the water. The water seemed to be very clean.

Odell Lake was visible from Hwy. 58, so we made another stop. ( I was driving, otherwise I doubt we would have stopped. Joe always tells me there are advantages when you drive. This is one of the advantages).

Hwy 58 crosses the Cascade mountains at the Willamette Pass at 5,128 ft.

We follow the Willamette River as we got closer to Eugene, OR and almost home again.

We moved to Ocean Shores, WA. on Wednesday 8/15/2012. We will be here for 12 days. I have internet once again, and there does not seem much to do here, so I am going to take this time at trying to get caught up on a lot of things, if Joe doesn't try to drag me off somewhere.