Day 5: Lakin'

The Fearsome Threesome were up at half-past five this morning.  Mt. Shasta was still slumbering in the clouds when the pitter-patter of little grunts and squeals could be heard coming from the pack-n-play.  We decided to take advantage of the unexpectedly early wake-up call and hit the road.  Our plans to take Highway 97 to Klamath Falls, OR were scrapped when we got news that a big section of it had been closed off by fire crews.  So we took Interstate 5 to Medford, and drove to Crater Lake from there, instead (interesting details!) Although the visibility was basically beef stroganoff, there were still some mighty good mountain scenery to be had.  Crossing into Oregon in what looked more like the dry Colorado plateau than the Pacific Northwest was a particular highlight.  Erica was asleep.

James conceded us almost two hours of driving time this morning, so we made it all the way to the Union Creek historic settlement about 20 miles from Crater Lake until he woke up displeased to be in the car seat again.  We fed him under a canopy of 200 ft. Douglas firs and afterwards stumbled upon this photo op:

The Edith Ann of his generation

Construction during the busiest month in the park is always a great idea, and it's the one the fine folks at Crater Lake had this week.  It took us nearly an hour to get to the caldera rim (~7100 ft.) from Union Creek because the one road kept going down to one lane.  I was to the point of regretting having come all the way up here.  Crater Lake is in the middle of absolutely nowhere, which, since we were going to be in the very general vicinity of it, made me want to go there, because when are you ever going to find yourself in this remote part of Oregon again?  Sure, you might go to Portland, but that's 250 miles from here. Anyway, Crater Lake used to be a mountain--Mt. Mazama--to be exact, which blew its stack roughly 7,700 years ago, collapsed in on itself, and filled with rain and snow.  It's just the deepest lake in the US, no biggie, with water so clear you can see down over 120 feet.  Another interesting fact, which I find literally unbelievable: the native people, the Klamath tribe, tell a story about two warring gods, one represented by Crater Lake and the other Mt. Shasta, hurling fire and boulders at one another, which anthropologists have identified as having derived from this cataclysm.  Could this event, which occurred over 5,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built, have lingered in a pre-literate peoples' memory for so long?  YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Anyway, I was still fuming at the traffic when we hit the rim.  And then I changed my mind:

Fwuh-POW! Crater Lake

Moreover

Ba-Zing! That's Wizard Island in the background.

Furthermore

Gaack!

And

Glug!

Finally

Zounds!

James celebrated this feeding in the most beautiful of places with a fantastic blowout that forced Erica and I to throw out a large picnic blanket that she had received free from work.  We didn't get to tackle a whole lot of the park unfortunately.  If we never come back, we'll be able to say we were here; if we do make it back, there's still plenty to do.  The ride home was a quiet one. We arrived in Medford, checked in to our hotel, the enjoyed the tasty offerings of BricktownE Brewing.  Tomorrow: the redwoods!

Thorns: Traffic in the middle of the woods

Roses: Didn't break any glass!  Also, the lake, duh.

Buds: Jed Smith State Park and a potential detour to Oregon Caves? Stay tuned, dear readers.

Car Miles: 246

Total Miles: 2482.5

--Grant