Our next stop was at the Sinnott Memorial Overlook which had a relief model of the park. I always love to look at these because I get a much better idea of the scope of the area. Even so, the lake is so huge – 6 miles across – and the rim varies from one to two thousand feet above the lake it is hard to get a perspective of how huge it is. Somewhere Jo read a statistic that said you have a one in 300 chance each day in experiencing a volcanic eruption at Crater Lake. Wow - that seemed pretty scary. We talked about this and argued a bit and then found the item that she read. It was actually one in 300 in 30 YEARS not in one day. It is so much fun to toss the facts around and think about what it really means.
We followed the winding road with dozens of lookouts which circles the lake. The only way to actually get down to the water is to take a 1.5 mile trail that drops over 700 feet. This is at an altitude of 7,000 feet. If you actually take the hike you can take a boat ride around the lake. We did not take the hike to the water. Therefore we did not have to hike back UP either. We did stop at many lookouts and short trails. Each viewpoint was just a little different and beautiful.We planned to have a picnic lunch at one of the picnic areas, but we went back to the trailer away from the mosquitoes instead. Then we took a little rest – I think the altitude was hard on us. In the late afternoon we stopped at Visitor Center to watch a film about the history of the area and, of course, do some final gift shopping. I found a fabric piece for quilting that has a picture from the history of Crater Lake park. It is one of a series available for other parks. I think it might be fun to make a quilted throw with pictures from many of the parks that we have visited.
Tomorrow Jo leaves us for a quick tour of the Pacific coast. We head back to the beach for a few more days.
No comments:
Post a Comment