vanpeltium

Crater Lake

This was the coldest weather we experienced along our trip, Lo had 2 sweatshirts on, I had 2 sweaters and a jacket, Shawn was in shorts and a jacket (typical).

Once the fog lifted and we could actually see the lake, it was beautiful, but still a bit cold and very windy. We hoped to take the boat ride over to Wizard Island, the cinder cone in the lake, but zooming on a lake in arctic temperatures didn't sound so great. We hung out in the lodge for a while, waiting for the temperature to rise. Lo was a trouper, he even sat through my lesson on composite volcanoes and the history of Mt. Mazama, the mountain that blew its top some 7.000 years ago to create this caldera. We continued our sight-seeing along the rim, stopping at various view points and taking a couple hikes.

There was plenty of old snow hanging around and the dusty surface didn't stop the boys from throwing a few snow balls.

We also drove out to the Pinnacles, which are vents from the ancient volcano that hardened into these tubes due to the extremely hot gasses flowing out of them. The softer, more easily eroded rock that surrounded these vents were washed away by the river that is now deep in the valley below. Here is Shawn acting like the King of the Forest

And finally a shot of all the snow on our way out of the park