Sunday: Crater Lake

On Saturday, Kimbal and I drove up to Crater Lake and did a little snowshoeing. First seeing the crater took my breath away and I felt fear or maybe awe at the immense size of the crater, I mean that used to be one huge volcano. It must have been something when it blew up! It is really an awesome display of the earth’s power. There is a road all the way around the rim of the crater, but most of the road is still covered in feet of snow, and only about a mile of the road was plowed and open to the public. Once we couldn’t go any further in our car, we put on our snowshoes and plodded another mile along the rim of the crater. We had to be careful to stay behind the tree line at the edge of the crater because in many places the snow overhangs the land. The lake was just beautiful down below, so crystal clear with a variety of blues, depending on the depth of the water. We didn’t go too far along the crater because Kimbal was still getting over his cold and, unfortunately, I was just starting to get sick. Sick or not, it was still a great visit to our first national park of the trip.


After leaving the crater we visiting a few nice spots along the upper Rogue River: a gorge with big rapids and a spot along the river where the water actually disappears underground in a lava tube for a short stretch. We watched some kayakers do the class 4 rapids downstream from the lava tube: they made it look easy!

We ended our day in the town of Ashland, a great town! We had a yummy dinner and stayed at a nice B&B in a totally awesome room. The bedroom was lined with high, short windows that let in a lot of light, but maintained some privacy and the shower had solar tube skylights. – way cool. Since I wasn’t feeling great, we crashed early, but if we ever make it back there again we’re definitely going to the Shakespeare Festival.