Deep Blue Lake

We took a few days vacation from work this week to take a trip with Steve, Lacy, and Mary. Our destination was Crater Lake in southern Oregon so we all piled into a rental van. We stayed in a cabin splitting the driving distance between Portland and Crater Lake. The cabin was nice for us to all relax together and let the kids play in a bit more space than hotel rooms provide. Unfortunately we could not enjoy the outdoors at the cabin at all because the mosquitos were beyond intense. Most of our time was spent killing any mosquitos that made it into the car or the house. It was worth it though once we got to Crater Lake.
Where Crater Lake stands today, there used to be a large volcano estimated to be larger than Mt. Hood. A huge eruption caused most of the mountain to collapse into a large caldera which eventually filled with water. As a frame of reference, the Mount Saint Helens explosion, which blew out the side of the mountain, moved 1/2 a cubic mile of earth. This eruption moved 15.1 cubic miles of earth. The resulting lake at 6,100 ft. is the deepest in the US at 1,948 feet. It’s only 20 square miles, but because it is so deep it holds over four times the water (4 trillion gallons) as Table Rock Lake. It is only fed by snow melt and rain fall resulting in incredibly clean and clear water (the lake also has the record for visibility of 142 ft. deep) and a deep blue color that is probably unrivaled anywhere else in the world. It really is stunning.

We hiked down from the top rim of the mountain to the lake itself to take a boat from the National Park Service to Wizard Island, a large volcano looking peak in the middle of the lake, complete with a crater at the top of it as well.

Once we got to Wizard Island it was another 750 ft. hike to the top of it’s crater rim. The views were amazing along the way and from the summit.

We had just enough time at the top to grab a quick lunch before heading back down to catch the boat back to the trailhead. It gave Vada a chance to hang out on Toban’s backpack and enjoy some food.

Here you can see Steve, Lacy, and Mary hiking below us on Wizard Island. Mary is passed out asleep in her backpack carrier. Further below in the photo you can see the boat dock. In between being dropped off and picked up by the boat this was where we could test out the 50 degree waters. After the mid day hike in the sun we all gladly dipped our feet in. Lacy was the only one of us (and one of only a couple females on the trip) to dive into the water! She said she would not do that again.

Here we are on the final boat ride. Luckily there was a tween age girl on the boat who helped entertain Vada.