Crater Lake Trip

One of our co-workers and us decided to take a trip to Crater Lake. The first day was mainly about getting there. We stopped at this neat wayside for a bite to eat along the way.

It was right beside the North Umpqua River so we just had to do a little boulder hopping.

Eventually we made it to Crater Lake.

The main focus of the trip was walking down the Cleetwood Cove Trail and letting our co-worker take a dip in the lake. The trail was very steep and dusty.

Anyone wanting to go on the boat ride that the NPS offers has to go down and up this trail.

Crater Lake is beautiful and the photos really don't do it justice.
Eventually we could see the boat dock to which we were headed.

We ended up going past the boat dock to a place where people jumped off a high rock and into the water. We didn't do that.

Our co-worker went for a swim while we waded in the water. We read in the park flyer that the water stays 38° year-round but the top foot is much warmer. It gets cold real fast as it gets deeper.

Just had to take a photo of us at Crater Lake.

Oh the trail back up. We weren't looking forward to that. If you know where to look, you can see some of the trail.

Oh, forgot to mention that the boats were all helicoptered in. The trail is the only lake access. I saw ATV tracks on the trail at one place so I suppose the dock crew went up and down the easy way.

Some parts of the trail are very steep which makes it hard to go slow down but really hard to do anything but go slow going up.

Just a few feet from the top.


We drove around a short piece of the Rim Road for some more views. Nolan and I were here in 2001 when we climbed Watchman Peak for a high view of the crater.

The color change as the lake gets closer to shore is really pretty.

There was a forest fire in the park.

That night we stayed at Diamond Lake Resort just north of Crater Lake on Diamond Lake.

Mt. Bailey