Crater Lake and the Oregon Caves

Since I haven't written in my blog for about two years, I will first write about the most recent things I have done while they are fresh at mind, then go back and write about past things that I feel are important to write about.

Last week I went on a trip with my family to southern Oregon to see Crater Lake and the Oregon Caves. The first day of the trip was almost entirely driving up to the Crater Lake camp grounds. We stopped at least twice to get drinks along this six and a half hour drive. There were many more people than in Lassen and there are lots more campgrounds.

The second day there we hiked to the top of Garfield Peak. The trails have lots of wildlife and the rock looks a lot like the Happys in some areas. The top has an amazing view of the whole lake. After about ten or so minutes it started to rain very lightly, so we stayed another ten minutes then started to hike down, by which time a large dark cloud was rapidly growing. By about half way down the cloud took up most of the sky and you could hear thunder approaching. When we got back to the car it had stopped raining but the clouds were still there, so we decided to save driving around the lake for the next day and go to the store near the campground to get something to eat.

After we were done eating we went to the car and sat for a few minutes watching the thunder. After a few minutes we heard a loud thump on the roof, then a few seconds later a few more, so I looked out of the window onto the ground where I saw a few inch thick hailstones. A few seconds after that, the storm really started to pick up and inch thick hailstones rattled against the roof of the car sow loud, I thought they would break through the roof or a window.

When we got to the campsite the hail had become smaller but showers of hail fell for about another ten minutes, then it rained heavily for a short time then it all nearly stopped except for a few small drops and some thunder.

Then we got out of the car and started digging trenches with rocks to lead the water away from the tent. Surprisingly the tent was fine except that the bottom got a little wet. All the days after this were nice and sunny.

The next day, we went on a two hour boat tour of the lake. The only way to get to the water is by a very steep 1.1 mile hike filled with switchbacks. From the boat, you can see many spectacular formations that you can't from the lookouts rim. On the tour we learned a lot about how the lake was formed and how each feature was formed. My favorite feature was the Phantom Ship. This is a 200 ish foot long island with rocky towers probably about 70-100 feet tall in some parts. After the tour, we drove around most of the lake and looked at many of the lookouts.

Next, we went to the Oregon Caves and stayed in the Chateau. The drive from Crater Lake to the Oregon Caves is about three hours and passes through a few small towns and over a river. When we got there we quickly got something to eat ant got on the last tour of the day. There were only three other people other than us so it was not to crowded. The caves were lit by lights and there were paths and ladders almost the whole way. There were tons of amazing features. There were huge jellyfish looking features and tons of stalagmites and stalactites and even a large column.

On the way back home, we stopped at a really cool woodworking place in Kerby Ville. They had tons of neat sculptures and lots of tree houses. One of the tree houses had three stories and was about forty feet tall.

Overall this trip was one of the best I have ever taken.