blue

we left portland this morning and headed south on us-5. our destination: crater lake national park. we took a scenic drive down towards it, which took us through the rogue-umpqua scenic area. we saw the umpqua river, above, on our way to the lake, and the rogue on the way back. and i have to say it: they dammed the rogue. the umpqua, though it is hard to see in this picture, was a beautiful emerald green because of minerals in it. you can also actually fish for salmon in the river, and a lot of people were. this part of oregon was what i also thought the state would look like--not the desert we had seen up until then. anyway, after a few hours, we had reached the heart of the cascade range and crater lake.

crater lake was the fifth national park ever created, and has been on my must-see list for this trip from pretty much day one. its elevation around the rim is roughly 8000 feet, and the lake is 1000 feet below. it used to be a volcano, but the middle fell in after it ceased being active, forming what is called a caldera. there are no streams or rivers leading to or from the caldera, so the lake is formed entirely from rain and snow melt. it is considered to be the purest water in north america, and even the world. you can see an 8 inch disc 400 feet below the surface, and the lake is about 5 miles in diameter.. this is also the reason it is so blue--the water is so pure that the light is able to penetrate really deep into it, sending back only blue color for our eyes to see. the picture of me was taken around the northern end of the lake.
of course, you have to drive for several miles within the park before you reach the lake. the surrounding area is filled with beautiful tall evergreen trees and....snow. there were still piles of snow reaching well above our heads. there was evidence that people had been snowboarding and snowshoeing. i found out later that the lake receives, on average, 44 feet of snow a year. 44 feet. and much of the lake itself was still covered with ice. i mean, this is late june, people. we could only drive about 1/3 of the way around the lake because the rest of it still needed to be plowed. only 1.5 miles out of 90 miles of trails were open--the rest were still inaccessible because of snow. and to top it off, it had snowed as recently as four days ago. so here we are, in our shorts/tank tops, wearing sandals in the 75 degree weather, walking on snow. that's my feet below; in the picture to the left i pressed myself into a person-sized imprint in the snow by a pull-out. needless to say, i did get snow in my sandals, but it also felt good in the heat. what a strange world.when you first walk up to crater lake, you see the far rim first, then the lake directly below it. which means that you are spending your first few seconds at the lake trying to figure out where the mountains end and the reflections begin. it's a little easier in this picture, but much of the rim was less peaked and more flat-topped. it took me a good while to figure this out. and then you spend several minutes marveling at the color contrasts. the lake, the sky, the snow, the green trees, the bark which matches the stone in the mountains. it really was enough to make blue/green/white/brown my new favorite color combination.

then you begin to notice other things--like how there are creeks of melted snow running beneath existing snow banks. or the island in the middle of the lake--called wizard island, it is a volcanic cone in and of itself. that's it to the left. you can actually hike to the top of it, but you have to take a boat to the island, which of course we could not do this early in the season. you have to wait for late july. and you can swim in the lake too--that would be a fantastic, albeit very cold, picture. there were quite a few people at the park, particularly around the rim village, which i suppose is understandable. i was glad that we had approached from the north, and thus had experienced that less crowded section. anyway, before long it was time for us to hit the road again. again. i could easily have spent hours and hours just staring at the lake--i wish we could have hiked to a viewpoint or down to the lake, but alas, we have not time for everything. i can hesitantly say, though, that this is my favorite national park so far.

as i mentioned before, we passed by the rogue river on our way south from the park, and the drive from here into california was truly stunning. tall trees, filtering sunlight, occasional lakes, rivers, and towns. entering california was like entering a foreign country, literally. they had a station to stop all traffic, and made us eat our cherries on the spot--i suppose that they were afraid we were bringing some sort of cherry disease with us. we would also have had to abandon any citrus, if we had had any. about 20 miles after entering cali, we realized we were on the redwood highway, and for good reason. while it was a hairpin highway, it also passed through several amazing stands of redwoods. so surreal to just be driving in between them. we didn't stop for the redwoods, knowing that we will be going to redwoods national park tomorrow, so we went on to crescent city, where we are spending the night. meanwhile, it is nice to finally be in our most western state. a little more than a week from now i will be heading back east.