Day 19: Redwoods Hike and Crater Lake - Crater Lake, Oregon

Today we woke up with many of us still tired from the long night the day before, but the one thing keeping us focused was in knowing that we were going to get to see the Redwoods National Forest before heading to Crater Lake. You could feel the excitement in the vans as we literally had some people screaming every time we passed a sign for the park. I'll tell you what, nothing prepares you for the first time you stand next to one of these giants and you get to see the size of them, they almost look magical. We parked our vans in a small parking lot in the middle of this Jurassic Park-like setting surrounded by towering trees and a veil of ferns and moss. Unfortunately we only had about 45 minutes of spare time so we had to make the hike quick which made it hard to truly enjoy the site and get good pictures but we all made the best of the time we had there. I know for a fact that one day I will be back to the Redwoods as it is a place with so much to see and explore that I could see myself staying there for a week and not getting tired of it. We regrettingly made our way out of the park and toward Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. 

Our group in the parking lot brewing with excitement

Welcome to Jurassic Park!

"The Wooden Throne"

When we arrived the first thing we did was meet at the visitor center and watch a 20 minute video on the history of Crater Lake and how it formed. 

The video explained that the lake was once a 12,000ft volcano called Mt. Mazama which was similar in size to other great mountains of the northwest, Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier. For whatever reason the mountain formed a crack around its base and when it erupted caused the top of the mountain to collapse into itself, there are even records of individuals form the Klamath tribe who witnessed the eruption and the formation of the lake that followed. The lake contains some of the purest water in the world, this is because no water enters or leaves outside of rainwater. The crater prevents any outside water from coming into contact with the lake, and there are no rivers or streams that leave from the lake itself, its basically an isolated system. This allows the lake to have some of the clearest water in the world and held the 1997 world record for clearest water with 143 ft if visibility. There were no animals living in the lake until the 1950s when settlers introduced trout and shrimp to support game fishing. 

Wizard Island, whats left from the top of the volcano after it collapsed

After watching the documentary we did a class reflection on it and figured that the lake is definitely not as pure as they say, as we see boats driving across the lake all over. Oil and gasoline leaks from the boat motors and enters the lake so there is definitely pollution entering that the video failed to ignore, probably because it does no good for business to tell your potential customers not to drive their boats on the lake because it will make it dirty. 

View of the lake from atop the lookout point

We left the visitor center and drove around the crater rim, stopping for photo ops along the way. The lookout spot had one of the nicest views of wizard island and the Lake itself, you could see all the way around and there was even a little snow still left (its almost July by this time). Next we parked our vans and headed toward a trail which was going to take us down the crater and to the lake shore so we could check out the water close-up. Unfortunately Helena's cold got the best of her and she and Katie stayed behind while the rest of us went on, although maybe they were the lucky ones as we were constantly attacked by mosquito's while we were on the trail. We got to the bottom and took some pictures, we watched as Matt, Dan, Jenny, and Ryan jumped into the water to see how cold it was, and we just generally enjoyed the scenery as this was our last hike of the trip. After getting our pictures and the jumpers had their clothes back on we made our way back up the trail, which I must say felt a heck of a lot longer going back up. Freaking switchbacks.

Bottom of the Calderra

We got back to our campsite and everyone made dinner, we put together some baked potatoes, soup and sausage which turned out delicious. Everyone worked on their journals a bit trying to get them in order but eventually everyone just found themselves sitting around the fire telling stories. It was a good night and I wish we'd had the time to have more of them, darn rushing around. Everyone went to bed a little later than expected but we knew we were heading towards Portland in the next couple of days so we all had that to look forward too.