Day 17 - Crater Lake!

Once again, we are in a hotel that will not let me upload the videos, so you will have to wait to see the Captain's Logs till we can upload them. Sorry.

So, we went for a walk this morning before leaving Crescent City, CA. It was a beautiful morning and a great way to start the day. The lighthouse was nearby, so I was drawn to it - you know, the photo thing.


Then we headed out of town and quickly jumped onto Hwy 199 east. Another fantastic squiggly road full of twists and turns. For a long time it ran alongside the Smith River which was a fantastic emerald color - so clear that you could see down to the bottom of the deepest of pools. I kept trying to find the right spot to stop to capture it, but passed most of the opportunities before actually seeing them.

Then we got onto Rt 62 heading toward Crater Lake, OR, and found that it ran alongside of the Rogue River for quite a while. What a fantastic river! At this point, it is near the headwaters and still running very fast, but as it goes through this volcanic rock section, it ducks under the rock for about 75 feet and comes shooting back out of the rocks to continue on its way. We could feel the power of it as it moved under us.

Finally, we made it up to Crater Lake, OR, and it was truly as spectacular as everyone had said. God has carved up some pretty incredible wonders for us to see and appreciate, no doubt about it! This is the deepest lake in the United States and one of the deepest in the world! It is a deep blue and full of history as it rests in a crater caused by a collapsed volcano. The rim of the old volcano totally surrounds the lake.

Yes, that means we spent a couple of hours in the snow again. There was snow everywhere up there. In fact, only about 1/3 of the rim road was open, the rest was still closed due to snow - and we are talking about late June! Right?

Of course, someone forgot to tell us that the bugs hatched in force today! Every time we stopped to look at and appreciate the beauty of the lake, the mosquitoes came in with blood-suckers primed and ready! I mean to tell you they were not afraid of anything and landed with every intent to do bodily harm! We had to get out of there before they ganged up on us and carried us over the edge to drop us in! Crazy. I know!

As we left Crater Lake, we ended up on Rt 138 east. That is when Dawn took this picture. Kind of looks like Nevada with pine trees, don't you think? We then turned north on Hwy 97 toward Bend, and it was flat and straight. Wonder what Kansas would look like with pine trees? We saw it today. Both of us were surprised at how much flat land there is here.

Don't misunderstand, there are some serious mountains here, but they lie mostly to the west and nearer the coast. We are spending the night in Bend, OR, and just west of here is a huge mountain called South Sister whose summit is over 10,000 feet! The odd thing is that Bend is about 20 miles from it and is flat as could be.

Tomorrow we aren't sure what we are doing. We are thinking about running up around Mt. Hood and along the Columbia River to Vancouver, WA. Quite honestly, we simply have not made up our minds. Who knows, maybe we will try our hand at white water rafting or something!

Quote of the day: As Dawn was trying to get pictures of some of the mountains on the way out of Crater Lake from the back of the moving motorcycle, I asked if she got a picture of one of the surrounding mountains. She said, "I don't know what I got, but I got something!"