Into the Crater - Day 95
I woke this morning having spent the night at the Manzana camp grounds just a few miles from the rim of Crater Lake. Fortunately, no bears. The tent and sleeping bag combo worked out great and I woke refreshed. This really is a pristine area, and the high altitude pine air is 
exhilarating. I even used their nice showers - 75 cents for 4 minutes and a pretty good shower with pressure and plenty of hot water.
Camping out allowed me to take a bit of a longer journey, and today I hiked into the crater. It was an easy 1.1 miles down hill. The 1.1 miles back up were rated "strenuous" - that might be an 
understatement. It took me about 40 minutes, but I passed people who had been walking up for almost two hours. It was just a mile. Yet everyone of them would say it was worth it. 
Where the crater meets the lake I boarded a 30 person boat for a 2 hour guided tour of the entire lake ($25). This place is just a natural wonder in so many ways. The perfect water, 
which some people were drinking, is so clear that you can easily see 100 feet deep. It's vivid blue, blue, bluiness is caused by the perfect water and the immense depth of the crater (1,942 feet). Besides the water the details of the walls of the crater were striking, as were the volcanic cones the jut up from the lake. And if I had my binoculars with me, I could have seen a Bald Eagle hatchling the rangers are keeping an eye on. Speaking of the rangers, the one who "interpreted" our cruise spoke with endless knowledge about the uniqueness of Crater Lake.
The whole Crater lake experience was fantastic. I'd love to come back and do it all again.
2 comments:
Time to expand the lists to 10 or 15 -- I love lists.
Scott a quick compare and contrast with a typical day for us working stiffs (not that you need to be reminded of this):
30 mile drive in 3 hours around crater lake - 30 mile commute taking 2 hours to get to the airport
Camping overnight by a volcano with a threat of a bear attack - "Camping" for 5 hours at Logan airport without airconditioning with a threat of attack from an angry mob
Staring at the bluest, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue (we get it is blue) lake - Staring at the murkiest blue rug under my feet while reading your blog
I could go on, but I started hitting the keys so hard that I broke my fingers.
Oh yeah, Scott, I lied, I am a little jealous.
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