Oregon - Day 23 - Crater Lake

Joseph Stewart County Park, near Shady Cove

Monday, 23 May 2022

Before we left the park, I stopped at their off-leash dog park, which was probably the largest I've ever seen.  At least half the dogs I saw camping here could have run around at the same time and been able to stay away from each other (as if they would).  But we were there soon after 7:00 so nobody else showed up.

today's route

The Deschutes River ran through the park, and it looked like it was about 10' down.  Some serious drought going on in this part of the state.

Due to almost being empty, I was forced to stop at LaPine, where gas cost $5.19, and fill up despite the cost, because I knew I'd be traveling through mostly rural country today.

As I was pulling out onto the road, a seriously old pickup pulled out right in front of me and took a while to get up to speed.  I had to do some braking to keep from hitting him and wondered about the people who seem to think all RVs are super slow and can therefore be pulled in front of safely.  Weird and dangerous.

Mountain Bluebird

But on the lucky side, I was just early enough to avoid being caught in a detour for road construction - they put up the barricades right behind me.

A bluebird flew up onto a sign and sat there so I could see him.

I drove through the Gilchrist State Forest (there's a lot of trees in this part of Oregon) and came to the town of Gilchrist, which bills itself as "The Model Company Town."  It was the last lumber company town owned entirely by a family in Oregon.

Gilchrist seemed to be almost on top of the town of Crescent - their road signs came right after each other.

A sign informed me that "Legislators Want to Take Away Open Possession."

Another one urged me to "Join the State of Jefferson."  Since that doesn't exist, that might be a problem.

Near the town of Chemult, elev. 4,795', I stopped at a rest area for a little walk.  I was getting sleepy and it'd been a couple of hours since the dogs had gotten out.

On the radio, I heard someone from the Bend visitors bureau or some such urge people to Come To Bend - Where You Can Dry Out.  For some reason the radio person immediately assumed she was talking about alcohol treatment, while I (correctly) assumed she was talking about a lack of rain.

A semi thanked me after I pulled over for him.

There were lots of "Do Not Pass Snowplows On the Right," making it clear there are often snowplows up here.  Speaking of snow, all over the state I saw signs saying "Snow Zone" with a covered-over space under that, and they were usually followed by signs saying a chain-up area was ahead.  I suppose the covered-over space would have information about dates maybe?

I passed a sign saying there was a controlled burn ahead and do not report.  Quite a few miles further on I saw a large area of fire.  I assumed it was the controlled burn area but there was nothing to say so and it was a large area and there wasn't anyone around.  I would have thought with the drought and all that this might not be a good idea, but maybe they're trying to prevent a worse fire later in the summer.

I found myself back on the Volcanic Legacy Oregon Scenic Byway, that I'd taken for part of the drive from Klamath Falls around to Medford and Ashland.  The only entrance open to Crater Lake National Park was the south entrance, so I was glad I hadn't tried to book a campsite at the KOA on the north side of the park, because it would have been miles out of the way.

I began to see a lot of snow on the ground, which means there's likely a great deal more snow at the north side of the park - another reason to be glad I didn't go there. 

I took this photo at the park's south entrance.
(Reminder: this is the 2nd half of May.)

The drive to the visitor center at the crater's rim is about 6 miles, and part way along a sign told me I was in an "Avalanche Zone - No Stopping Next ½ Mile."  Not a reassuring thought, but we made it with no problems.  We were even early enough to find a parking place, though the parking area filled up quickly after that.

Before I get to the remarkable beauty of the lake, I'm going to explain where it came from, which I hadn't known before I got here, so maybe you don't either.

Crater Lake isn't technically a crater but instead the caldera of Mount Mazama, one of the line of volcanoes that runs from Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta in California up into British Columbia.  Mt. Mazama was originally 12,000' tall and, over a period of 400,000 years, erupted repeatedly.  Then, a mere 7,700 years ago, a chamber beneath the mountain worked up enough pressure to release gas inside it, and that gas expanded and caused a huge column of pumice and ash to erupt from a vent just off the summit.

As the peak began to sink after losing all that interior matter, new vents formed, speeding up the process of emptying the interior magma chamber.  And as the chamber emptied, the mountain top collapsed under its own weight and formed a caldera.

Over centuries, rain and snow filled the caldera.  The water was unusually pure because it didn't include sediment from streams, since it wasn't fed by any streams.  It is this clarity that brings the unusual color and beauty to the lake.  It's 1,943' deep and is the deepest lake in the US.  It ranks #9 in the world for maximum depth and #3 for average depth.

The Park Service handout included an interesting angle on nature: the midge fly lays its eggs on the surface of Crater Lake.  The eggs sink to the bottom of this very deep lake, hatch, feed and mature.  The pupae swim and float all the way back to the surface, become adults and start the cycle over again.  What an odd adaptation.

Now, on to scenic beauty.  I've wanted to see Crater Lake for years, and the dogs have wanted to take a walk for an hour, so we combined activities.  It involved asking for directions from other tourists, because there weren't any signs telling me where I could get to the rim.  Then it involved trekking through several feet of snow, which Dexter didn't want to do, and climbing a small hill, which Gracie didn't want to do.  But here was my reward.

Crater Lake

I stood for a few minutes, being amazed and moved to tears at the extraordinary beauty, and then decided to try another video.  I got partway through when both of my dogs discovered a Rottweiler walking very nearby and both decided to go meet it.  I was standing somewhat precariously on a hillside of snow and my brain was split between trying to protect my camera, trying to keep from slipping and falling in the snow, and trying to keep the dogs from the other dog.  Here's the video that resulted.

The other people didn't think much of either me or my dogs, who were actually fairly well-behaved, at least as long as it took me to grab their leashes again, and I couldn't see that I deserved condemnation under the circumstances.  But it all worked out okay.  Dext was fine with it, Gracie started growling for some reason, and the other dog didn't react too badly to being double-teamed.

In the parking area, I saw a bird I haven't been able to identify.  I thought I had a good look at it - there were 2 of them and they came pretty close to where we were and sat still for a bit.  What I saw was a bird about the size of a jay with a dark head and a dark body and a white shawl around its neck.  And there's nothing that looks like that in the bird book, and I can't find anything online.  The closest I or any website could find was the Eastern Kingbird, which is all white underneath and the bird I saw was dark, and the Loggerhead Shrike, which ditto.  Very frustrating.

Eastern Kingbird

Loggerhead Shrike

As we were driving back out of the park from the rim, I saw a marmot stick his head out of a hole in the snow.  And I saw a Steller's Jay fly across the road, looking very blue against that white snow.

The road seemed different going downhill, where the s-curves seemed tighter and the slope seemed steeper.  Lots of switchbacks I hadn't particularly noticed going up.  The rim is at 7,100' and the entrance is at 6,000' so I was losing a lot of altitude in a short distance.

By 10 miles back on the road after leaving the park, all the snow had vanished.  What a change.

A bear cub ran across the road in front of me, and when I stopped to take a look, it climbed a tree and poked its head around the trunk to keep an eye on me.  I was lucky because, as I'd been coming close to where it was, I thought I saw something big and dark moving in the trees near the road, so I was already slowing down and alert.  And it's that that may have saved that cub's life.  I'm guessing I saw its momma in the trees, though I didn't see her when I stopped.  It's the little hits of nature I've been lucky enough to see on this trip that are making it a special experience for me.

The road continued to descend and I found I was back by the Rogue River.  When I saw a sign for the Rogue River Gorge Viewpoint, I decided to stop and take a look.  It turned out to be more interesting than I'd expected.  The dogs and I walked around the parking area, and then I went alone to the gorge.

Here's how nature formed the river:

  

This is the sign - details enlarged below.

   

An illustration of what I saw - see videos below.

Looking downriver, some rapids in the gorge.

I shot 2 videos of the Rogue River going through the gorge.  The first one is from the bridge looking upstream, and the second is looking downstream.

As a side note, the trees in this area have unusual root systems:

the explanation

the reality

And I saw this memorial near the entrance.  

Back on the road, a sign told me I was now on the Rogue Umpqua Oregon Scenic Byway.

I actually got 2 thank yous from other drivers today.  A spirit uplifter.

I drove by, then crossed on a very high bridge, then continued to drive by a huge blue-green body of water called Lost Creek Lake.  Very long and very wide reservoir created by damming the Rogue River.

Tonight's campground was a little unusual.  I found when I was doing a campground search that up until recently, it was a state park.  But now the county has assumed control.  A very large and well-maintained campground, including an off-leash dog park.  It was a sunny and warm day, and we got here early enough to enjoy it.  There were 4 camping loops, and none of them seemed to have many campers - our loop had only about 10% of the sites being used.  So that was nice.