Today we arrived at Crater Lake and the weather couldn't have been better for Jay's first view, fluffy clouds and lots of sun, glistening off the snow! In fact, there's still so much snow on the ground that many of the trails are closed... We did a quick hike up to the nearest peak for an overview of the lake and saw another new bird (lots of them actually), the Clark's Nutcracker. Another cool bird was the Rock Wren (not new, but not one I've seen often). We drove around a bit and hiked up to Discover Point, then stopped with Billy and the fire crew to watch smoke lines coming out of the forest west of the park (a huge storm had gone through that afternoon, with lightening strikes all over the place). Looks like the fire crew won't be attending any fireworks shows tomorrow night, they'll have to be out in the field. Next, we went down into one of the canyons on the south end of the park. We didn't stay out long though, as soon as the sun started going down, the mosquitos came out. It was almost as bad as south Florida! We tried to take some sunset photos of the lake, but the mosquitos won out and we retreated to Billy's place for dinner and catching up (Billy works on the fire crew during the summers, and retreats to Florida in the winter).
That's Jay on the far right, and Billy on his left
July 4, 2006 (3.5 miles)
Happy Fourth of July! We got an early start today because we had big plans! We started the morning with a hike down to Cleetwood Cove (short, but extremely steep drop from the rim down to the water's edge). It was awesome! A completely different perspective on the park. And since we made it all the way to the water, we just had to jump in... so we did! I made one quick, short jump, but Jay went in twice. The second time he jumped off a rock about 20 feet above the waterline, and landed far enough out that his arms turned numb on the swim back to shore (the water is only 38 degrees)! It was so worth it! It even felt good to make the climb back up to the rim. Our next mission to was find some waterfalls, so where better than Highway 138, a road that drips with waterfalls at practically every turn. We didn't hit them all, but we made it to Toketee, Watson, Fall River, and others. After that, we headed down to the Diamond Lake resort, where there was a big BBQ and a huge fireworks display. We grabbed some grub and some beers, and headed out to the dock (surprisingly, nobody else chose to use this ideal viewing spot). It was hands down the best fireworks show we've ever seen! The lake sits in the middle of tall mountains on all sides, so with each firework, there was an echoing crack around the lake. And before it even started, there was a "pre-show" across the lake at the top of one of the moutains. A group of 4 skiers had hiked up before sunset, and as soon as it got dark, they took off down the moutain in a beautiful formation, with torches in their hands. It was really an amazing night.
Jay hikes down to the lakeshore
Toketee Falls
Waiting for the fireworks to start at Diamond Lake Resort
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