July 31, 2010 - Albany, Oregon
Boat Tour - My last day at Crater Lake. I finally got on a boat tour. No lightening nor thunderstorms today. I enjoyed the view of the rim from the boat - more interesting and colorful than I expected. Saw a couple pretty waterfalls.
The water in Crater Lake is the cleanest and clearest in the world. It holds the world's record for its clarity reading - down to 144 feet! All the water in the lake comes from either rain or melted snow. There are no rivers that feed it, so no rivers bring silt into the lake. You can drink the water from the lake, and the ranger did just that, on the boat ride I took, as did a number of people in our boat (I didn't have an empty water bottle or I would have had some too).
That explains some of what makes the water so clear and blue. The other factor is how deep the lake is - over 1900 feet deep. That's the deepest lake in the US, and the ninth deepest in the world. The water was the same royal blue as the life preservers the kids were wearing.
But none of that describes for you the awesomeness of this place. This was one of those times where I took a stupidly excessive number of photos. Just about every time I looked at it, I wanted to capture what I was seeing, to show you, to keep, to remember. But none of my pictures truly show it like it really is. You'll just have to go and see it. :-)
Rim Walk - I took the short walk along the rim near the lodge [photo above]. After all these trips around the rim the last few days, the beauty of the lake still stuns me. I thought the displays at the ranger station near the lodge, about the lake and volcanoes, were well done and informative.
Tremors - I saw two more "dust blasts" today. Now that I know what to look for, I know I was looking at very small tremors. Just a reminder that this is still an active volcano.
Top Ten - Well, Crater Lake is definitely on my Top Ten National Parks list, along with Grand Canyon (it IS one of the seven wonders of the world, after all) and Bryce Canyon (unique and beautiful)... (I'll have to get around to making that list one of these days...) Besides the unbelievable beauty of the lake, and its uniqueness, there weren't that many people there. I could go for a walk on a trail, and not meet anyone else on the trail (and did!). And it's on my Top Ten Most Beautiful Lakes list too. (One of these days...)
If you haven't put Crater Lake on your list of places to visit - Do! You won't be sorry.
Hike – The last thing I did was a one-mile hike “through a old-growth forest” with views of a canyon, and it was the only disappointing thing I did there. I was hoping to see some birds. Didn’t. But if I had, I would have been too distracted by the mosquitoes to do anything about it. At first there were no mosquitoes, or I wouldn’t even have started the hike, but the longer I was on the trail, the worse they got, and my mosquito repellent didn’t work as well as I’d like it to. I don't have any tolerance for mosquitoes.
Mt. Thiesen - I got my best view yet of Mt. Thiesen as I was leaving Crater Lake. I always think of my friend Nancy who loves "pointy" peaks when I look at this one.
Diamond Lake Campground - I drove as far as Diamond Lake this evening (which isn't far). I walked down to the lake, enjoying the smells and sights of the lake, and realized that Crater Lake did not smell like a normal lake. [photo of Mt. Bailey and Diamond Lake right]
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