Parm here to give you the deets on the large hole in the ground known as Crater Lake.
We got to the park in late afternoon after a leisurely morning leaving Salem as we couldn't get out the door without play a few games of Bananagrams. It’s official, I’m hooked. Thankfully Katie loves to play as much as I do so as soon as we get our own set we’re planning to start practicing for the international Bananagrams championships.
We rushed to the visitor’s center upon arriving to see if we could sign up for one of the ranger-led hikes we’d read about online. The office closed at 5:00p and we hurdled over the snow at 4:59p like true champions at the finish line. The lucky prize for us? Three spots on the next day’s snowshoe hike with a ranger!
The snow we climbed over to get to the visitor's center - Snoopy is on the left dwarfed by snow
We then checked out the main attraction at Crater Lake National Park, Crater Lake. Whew, is it a lake alright! It’s a stunning sight as the largest lake in the country and one of the deepest blues you’ll ever see. Being completely surrounded by the rim of the caldera, there was absolutely no movement on the lake as if in a surreal moment frozen in time. Here are some pics frozen in time as well:
Heading out of the park we stopped at the first campground we saw (all the ones in the park were covered with 7 feet of snow, so therefore closed) and lucked out with an awesome site on the Rogue River. A successful battle with the fire pit ensued and Katie was lulled to sleep by the sound of the rushing river behind us. Emmie and I were not as lucky to be blessed by the gods of river sleeping aids as we were up most of the night thanks to a lost sleeping pad and an overly aggressive bird. Around 2:30am, Emmie and the bird went mano a pareja (Bird in Spanish??) with some fierce language and chirping being passed back and forth…el pajaro won.
Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp
Emmie: Agghh
Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp
Emmie: Oh my gosh, shut up bird!
Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp
Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp
Bird: chirp, chirp, chiiirrrrrrpppppp
Emmie checking out the river behind our site - note you can see the corner of the half dome (aka our tent) to the right of her
Last of the mountain man dinners (read: we're graduating to real food) with some great Merlot from Mystic in Oregon - thanks Dave & Lois!
Reading in the morning as sleep is not an option, note the morning fire fail behind me after we ran out of propane. I was lucky in that Emmie made me coffee early though. She's a smart woman.
Our snowshoe hike the next day was a grand success as we teamed up with 30 other park visitors for a guided hike with Ranger Emily. The park supplied the snowshoes and we set off to learn more about Crater Lake. Ranger Emily was excellent and upheld the tradition of superb National Park rangers with her knowledge and helpfulness. And yes, it's appropriate to refer to her as "Ranger Emily" at every opportunity. More to come on her connections later… We learned a ton on the hike about how the forest changes with each season, the importance of water equivalence in snow and saw lichen in action.
Pic #437 of the three of us - was crazy to snowshoe in JUNE in 70 degree weather!
View of the lake from the hike
Ready to get my shoe'n on
So it's just like walking if you're curious
Jumping pics are a bit harder in snowshoes, but this one is pretty rockin
The snowshoe hikes apparently end in the Spring each year but as you can see from the pictures, this was no light dusting of snow. The park had an AVERAGE of 78 inches of snow on the ground! The levels for the end of June are typically 14-15 inches so they were still trying to dig out many of the main roads and decided to keep the snowshoe hikes going.
I was most excited during the hike with what I learned about Ranger Emily herself. At one point Emmie was hiking next to her and said, “my friend Emily is interested in how you become a park ranger – can you tell me more about it?” I heard this and made a beeline over to Ranger Emily and Emmie to get closer. I may or may not have taken out a few small children and elderly folks with my snowshoes in the process. No worries though – the snowpack was soft and water equivalency low (as learned from Ranger Emily too) so they had an easy fall. J Just kidding, but I did learn quite a bit about rangers. There are apparently two types of rangers, Interpretive Rangers and Law Enforcement Rangers, the latter being close to a police officer/sheriff. Most have some type of natural science background or experience (Ranger Emily worked at a nature camp and was a geology major) but it’s not necessary. You apply directly to each park and train onsite for the seasonal or year-long position.
After the hike we unexpectedly were able to see the rangers in action, the law enforcement rangers that is. No less than 5 minutes after dropping off our snowshoes, the keys were locked in the car. Considering the trip has been underway for 22 days now, it's slightly surprising this didn't happen earlier. The irony in this instance is that I asked no less than 3 times if someone had the keys before we shut the door. Typically, yes, I'll admit it, I'm a bit neurotic about locking the doors but don't ask a bajillion times so this is now funny in hindsight. Thankfully our girl Ranger Emily hooked us up with her law enforcement ranger buddies and they were able to get the doors open. I know carry the spare set on me secretly but don't tell Katie and Emmie. :)
Thanks Ranger Emily!
Pumped we got the keys out!
Do some good neck stretches because we're headed into the Redwoods next, California here we come!
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