Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus
There's a third favorite spot. I've only been there once, in 2013, but I will never forget it even if I never get back there.
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So, in 2013 I and my 2 siblings & their families had a reunion with a family from Madras, OR, my mother's best buddies that I've known since the early '60's when I was a tiny tyke. They're lovely people and it was good to see them in their beautiful home their, but I can't speak so kindly of that horrid, wretched dump of a sagebrush & juniper little town.
So, it was time for me to drive back to Seattle (again not realizing how blind I am), and a thought struck me: I've come this far, why not drive a little farther and go to Crater Lake? It's without a doubt the jewel of Oregon, but I've never seen it and this is a golden opportunity.
So I turn my car south on US 97 and head out, passing threw the amazing Bend, OR
...threw
Newberry Volcano, which no longer *looks* like a volcano since it blew itself to smithereens about 16 million years ago
All the ground of this entire area has a reddish hue from the cinders left behind, as a local brewery implies
So as I approach my destination, I pay a $10 entry fee to one of these fine persons
So it's about 10 miles past that point, winding UP and UP and UP to ear-popping heights, and I reach "Rim Drive", the road around a lake that at this point I still can't see. So I get out and hike up to the edge...
Those were taken with my POS Iphone that I absolutely hated (never again) and in no way portray the majesty of this vision. I've tried to relate this place, and few people "get it", "oh, wow, a lake, neat". No. This place is transcendent. This is almost eight thousand years of rain water, filling a caldera of what used to be the highest volcanic mountain in what is now Oregon, and because it's 100% rain/snow it's nearly 2000 feet deep of the purest, cleanest, clearest water in the world. I'll try some better pics but it's just impossible to relate the breathtaking beauty of this lake
Artist rendering of what Mt Mazama might've looked like before it blew it's top 7,700 years ago
As I drove around the lake I also caught, from about 1500 feet away I'd guess, the "Old Man Of The Lake". This is a log that's been bobbing vertically in the water since at least 1902 when it was first described by Joseph S Diller. You might recognize this image:
I did try to take a picture with my perfectly atrocious Iphone, but it just looks like blurry water. You'll have to take my word for it, it was the "Old Man".
My two nephews live in Bend, that's only a couple hours from Crater Lake. I'm hoping to get down there with them soon, maybe even this summer. Trust me, you don't try going to Crater Lake in winter.