Crater Lake National Park, OR

Day #45 (September 14, 2022): We continued our drive through Oregon by traveling through some dramatically different landscapes of evergreen Mt Hood National Forest, gentle sage hills of Warm Springs Reservation, empty black Lava Lands, and then back to lush evergreen forests along the way. We were thankful to arrive to Crater Lake National Park no later than we did after we drove to our campsite in Crater Lake’s Mazama campground! This one was a doozy!!! In fact, it was so hard that it took us 2 ½ hours to park, using every inch (literally) to squeeze through the tight awkwardly-curved pull-through site, narrowly dodging inconveniently-placed boulders, trees, and stumps that lined it. Once parked, the kids absolutely loved the site because it was covered in fallen logs and stumps that they could make into an unlimited amount of obstacle courses and challenges.

Day #46 (September 15, 2022): Chris, Emily, and Bethany started the day off bright and early to admire the sunset over Crater Lake. As we waited for the sun to rise, we got a kick out of seeing a fog-cloud “waterfall” cascading over the rim down toward the lake. It was the coolest thing! From a pullout along Rim Drive, we watched the sun rise from behind Crater Lake’s east rim.

It was magnificent! Afterward, we went to the lodge to purchase tickets for the boat tour for the next day since they often sell out. While Chris caught up on some work in the RV, Emily and the kids spent the rest of the day exploring the national park by watching the movie in the visitor center, driving part of Rim Drive, and hiking some trails. The short trail overlooking the Pinnacles, which are volcanic spires called fossil fumaroles, was super cool. Our favorite trail though was Sun Notch trail where we could see Phantom Ship and play among the trees.

That evening, Chris, Emily, and Joanna walked along Discovery Point trail and then across the road to admire the sunset over the distant mountains off to the west.

After dark, we all went back to our sunrise spot for some amazing stargazing—the best we’ve ever experienced! We could see the Milky Way running across the sky! We had never seen the Milky Way before! Wow! What a fantastic day of soaking in God’s beauty and creation!

Day #47 (September 16, 2022): After some morning schoolwork, we drove to the opposite side of the lake, taking in more pullouts and overlooks and snapping quick photos, as we made our way to our boat tour from Cleetwood Cove. The 2-hour ranger-led boat tour was super informative, complete with the history and geology of the lake and Mt. Mazama volcano, on which the lake sits.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake (1,943 ft deep) in the United States and the purest/cleanest large body of water in the world! Its stunning deep blue color is a daily testament to its depth and purity and thus its exceptional clarity. Interestingly, the source of water in Crater Lake is only precipitation such as rain and snow melt; no rivers, streams, springs, etc feed into the lake, which reduces sources of pollution. (Interesting side note: Crater Lake National Park averages 40-50 feet of snow every winter. In fact, it is one of the snowiest places in America, and it offers some fun winter activities for those interested…Bucket list noted.) Because its water is cleaner than any water from a tap, the ranger filled empty water bottles for visitors on the tour to drink straight from the lake. We didn’t bring an empty water bottle along, so our family didn’t taste the water, but good to know for next time. The boat ride across and around the 6-mile wide circular lake gave us closer views of many of the lake-filled volcano’s landmarks and features, such as Devil’s Backbone, Pumice Castle, Phantom ship, and Wizard Island, a cinder cone, which is sort of like a smaller volcano inside a larger volcano. What?! Wow!! Oddly, our ranger guide was delighted that a tree stump was floating near the ending point of our tour. Ok…?? Turns out, this 30-ft free-floating stump is quite an icon of Crater Lake. It is affectionately known as “The Old Man of the Lake” because it is has been floating vertically in Crater Lake since at least 1896, and it wanders around at its own discretion…or wind, I suppose…and sometimes it isn’t in clear, up-close view of the boat tours. This was the last day for boat tours of the season, so our guide was thankful that the “Old Man” was there to say “good-bye” to us for the season. That’s cool!

There’s only one way down to the lake for anyone wanting to touch the crystal blue waters, take the boat tour, swim in the icy waters, or try their luck at fishing: the Cleetwood trail. Coming down earlier that morning wasn’t too bad. We took our time, marveling along the way at how light big chunks of pumice rock were and laughing at how they made us look so strong! Ha! But… going back up the trail, well, that was a doozy and quite strenuous with its many steep switchbacks up the edge of the caldera as we climbed our way out of the pit of the collapsed ancient volcano. The kids didn’t understand why Mom and Dad had to stop every so often to catch their breath and rest before continuing onto the next switchback! LOL! Afterwards, we continued our drive along Rim Drive, completing the full circle when we returned to our campground later that evening. On our way back to camp, we stopped at Annie’s Café & Gift Shop in Mazama Village for dinner: pizza, burgers, and yummy 3-bean chili.

Having had an amazing time stargazing the night before, we were eager to see more stars and gaze into the Milky Way again, and Chris wanted to try taking some more pictures with his iphone. We drove back to Watchman Overlook and experienced some epic stargazing, identifying the Milky Way, Big and Little Dippers, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Cassiopeia, North Star, Jupiter, and Saturn. (The SkyView app is an excellent app that makes stargazing and identifying planets, stars, and constellations so much easier!) We even saw a couple shooting stars! Wow! Outstanding! And the pictures that Chris captured with his iphone…absolutely amazing! We went to bed on cloud 9, so thankful to have had another fantastic day basking in God’s glorious creation!

Day #48 (September 17, 2022): As much as we love to explore and experience new sights and beauties, the introverts in us all really crave “stay-home” days, especially after so many days of go-go-go. We spent the entire day at home at our campsite! It…was…lovely! We caught up on some schoolwork. Emily and Chris worked on prep work for the blog. The kids played “obstacle course” on the logs in and around our campsite. Next, they made homes and pretended they were on the survival TV show, “Alone,” which they had gotten into watching in the evenings ever since our time in Glacier. Then, later in the afternoon, in 2 minutes flat, the campsite was transformed into a winter wonderland after a brief storm quickly covered the ground in sleet. Tiny white bb’s covered the ground. Wow! We stayed inside the rest of the day and enjoyed the wintry scene outside our windows.

Day #49 (September 18. 2022): Crater Lake is an amazing place to visit and behold its one-of-a-kind beauty. After spending the last 4 days in a volcano and on its caldera, now it’s time to move on to another infamous volcanic site: Yellowstone National Park.

In route, we drove back through Bend, OR, so we decided this time to swing in for a closer look at Lava Lands Newberry National Volcanic Monument. It is such bizarre place! We are driving along miles and miles of seemingly endless forests of pine trees and then, all of a sudden, the roadside scenery is black rocky desert with no trees for a couple miles, and then boom, back to lush pine tree forests just as before, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering if we just imagined the last 2 minutes! Was that a scene from a sci-fi movie?! What was that??! Thank goodness for the ability to do Google searches on the road (when signal is available) so we can answer so many questions that come up when we pass by so many unknowns and never-seen-by-us-before places and things.

We went into Lava Land’s visitor center to learn about the history of the area and then walked out to the lava fields to see the black rock and volcanic debris more up close. We didn’t have enough time to hike through it, and we were too big with our rig attached to drive up to the summit for an even better look. Nonetheless, we were thankful for the brief stop, and then we were back on the road. After a bit, we see a road sign that says, “Oregon Badlands.” I didn’t know such a place existed! We went to Badlands National Park in South Dakota in August, but here we are again in the Badlands! Who knew?! From the road (US Hwy 20), we did not see any sand-art-inspiring rock formations like South Dakota’s Badlands. Rather, these badlands were more like flat desert wilderness covered with small, stubby plants. For 2+ hours, we drove straight, with no houses, no businesses, no gas stations, no intersecting streets, no nothing! Thankfully, we pack snacks and lunches on all our travel days because stopping for fast food with a 40’ 5th-wheel is not a logistical feat we want to take on. Unless the fast food is at a Love’s or TA, it’s cold sandwiches and snacks for us! And there was definitely no Love’s or TA on this small highway!

Although we were not anticipating this vast land of nothingness, some people evidently are well aware of its existence and see it as a fantastic opportunity for a long joy ride at top speeds. Groups of speed cars zoomed by us on this 2-lane highway (one lane in each direction). The most impressive group to zip past us was a group of 6 sports cars, who took their turns buzzing by us one by one every 10 seconds or so! What?! Did that too really just happen?! I’ve never seen so many Ferraris and McLarens at one time!

The first sign of human habitation past the Badlands was in Burns, OR. We were thankful to find a last-minute campsite in a no-frills, gravel parking lot with full hookups called Quail Ridge RV Park in Burns, OR. After having no hookups for the past 4 nights, we were more than ready for electricity, water, and sewer so that we could all take showers and do some laundry! Never has a gravel parking lot been such a lovely site for sore eyes! LOL! It was perfect! We kept the laundry going all through the night, rotating it every few hours (washer takes an hour to run and the dryer takes 2 hours per small load). Catching up on laundry can be a bit of a logistical challenge since each load takes 3 hours start to finish, but we were caught up by morning! What a blessing! Having a washing machine and dryer in an RV is definitely a luxury and something we are incredibly thankful for!

Day #50 (September 19, 2022): As we continued to drive on the Columbian Plateau toward Yellowstone, the scenery transitioned to wheat fields and potato fields. We stopped in Mountain Home, ID, at Mountain Home RV Park. Wow! It is so much hotter here! It’s 85 degrees here, while it’s 35 degrees in Crater Lake! Big difference! What an amazing place to stop for the travel-weary! Hands down, Mountain Home RV Park is the nicest RV park we have stopped at yet! It is so clean! And, there’s a Walmart less than 5 minutes away so we can stock up before heading to more remote places!

Day #51 (September 20, 2022): Mountain Home RV Park is so nice that we have decided to stay for a second night and just push a little harder tomorrow to make it all the way to Yellowstone. Yes! A stay-home day! Chris worked in the RV, while Emily and the kids did school, played Oculus, and ran on the gym’s treadmills in the upstairs recreation room above the park’s office. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves! Afterward, the girls enjoyed swimming in the outdoor swimming pool. That night, we rode our bikes around on the paved roads of the park. How nice it has been to have a quiet, slower-paced rest day!