Crater Lake

Even though during the last couple of months of this "pandemic" summer, we have been exploring outdoor spaces close to home, we had not ventured out of our county or more than an hour from home in over five months.  

The kids had a school closure day early this month that came at the end of our previously requested paid time off  (where we had planned to go to Orange County to see K's family but cancelled due to COVID). After careful deliberation, we decided to take a short less-than-48-hours' road-trip north to Crater Lake in Oregon, which is about five and a half hours from us. I know that some people will judge or possibly shame us for having left the county/(state), but also that others have done far more congregating and socializing or traveling in the last five months than we have done in our at-home life since the pandemic began, in which we have been very strict. In fact, I debated whether or not to even post publicly about our short excursion, but decided to go ahead here, as I like to look back on/reference past trips and pictures on this blog and I feel comfortable with our decision by the precautions we took. I can assure you that we were extremely safe during our trip, spending our time either in the car or hiking outdoors, staying in a private AirBnb apartment with a lockbox entry for two nights in Medford (and sanitizing high-touch surfaces), bringing our own cooler of food and child potty, wearing masks except for our photos, staying well away from others, and physically distancing at all times. Despite seeing many Trump-Pence signs in rural southern Oregon, we did not feel unsafe at all during the trip or that we were doing anything high-risk.

While we've launched several road trips to Oregon (the Oregon Coast, Southern OR/ Ashland area, Portland, and Bend, mostly pre-kids) from where we live now, the last time Kelvin and I had visited Crater Lake was a decade ago in 2010 on a trip up from Sacramento to visit the coastal redwoods (in an area which we have now lived for nine years!) and where we snowshoed in May! 

  

While this was a bit of a whirlwind trip with a lot of driving (think: listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on repeat) relative to "doing stuff," the riverside [Smith, then Rogue Rivers] scenery really was lovely (despite being curvy at times-- Dramamine, which has helped Iver, is great!), and it was very much worth it. The mountain lake caldera and Rim Drive, which is inaccessible as much as eight months of the year due to snow, was stunning. The views we had, and pictures we took (with a borrowed selfie stick) were incredible, and we enjoyed some warm summer weather (and water playtime) to boot-- it was a perfect time to visit and very easy to social distance.

We saw our friends the elk north of Orick

Crater Lake is Oregon's deepest lake (1932 feet) in the caldera of Mt. Mazama, while it's not the state's biggest. It also forms the state's only National Park (and one of our country's oldest). It can be visited in the late summer with driving around 33-mile Rim Drive, which encircles the lake, and stopping at various viewpoints and trails (while snow is present most of the rest of the year as it was in May 2010).

First, we stopped at Watchman Overlook. It was actually windy and cold when we got there (at close to 8000 ft)-- we wished we'd had on pants and more layers!

It was an extremely clear day, and we could see the snow-capped peak of Mt. Shasta, over 100 miles away near Redding, California.

We hiked a short but steep and empty trail to Watchman Peak Overlook.

From this viewpoint, we had great views of Wizard Island.

We got some beautiful photos, except for some sunspots due to the hour of the day (we hear that this spot is even lovelier at sunset). The lake has a stunning blue hue. 

We finally made use of a hiking backpack that Wendi passed down to me years ago! 

While the above pictures are what I like to post, this is what a lot of our photos look like:

We drove around the southern rim of the lake first, and saw some waterfalls.

We parked at the trailhead and hiked to Plaikni Falls (which is Klamath Indian for "from the high country," as the falls originate from melting snow high above the volcano).

We ate our packed lunch at the trailhead after our hike.

While Pepper wasn't allowed on most trails, she did enjoy coming along on the trip with us.

 We took some photos by "The Pinnacles," which are interesting looking rocky formations found down a spur road, when the day had warmed up considerably (and we were farther from the lake edge).

Cloudcap Overlook on the eastern rim of the lake also provides beautiful views and is on the highest paved road in Oregon.

Niall was napping in his carseat by this point in the afternoon, but the three of the rest of us popped out of our parked car for some photos.

These are "flag trees," so named as they're shaped by the direction of strong winds.

On the return, two-hour drive back from Crater Lake to Medford, we stopped by Diamond Lake (which still felt cold!) but then found warmer Lost Man Lake with day access, where the kids splashed in the shallow, muddy water while Pepper and I panted on shore.

On the way back home from Oregon the next morning, we stopped at Jedediah Smith State Park to visit the Smith River for the first time. 

Like the Trinity, the water was very green and clear, and we got some good snapshots amidst the water time (and a riverside packed lunch).

We are thankful to have been able to do a sweet summer jaunt to see some truly spectacular sites north of us while staying safe and distanced. Everyone needs to see and visit Crater Lake sometime when this pandemic is over (and August is probably the best time!)-- while a bit difficult to get to unless you live in Northern CA or Oregon, it is truly a magical gem of natural beauty. And now we're hunkered back down for the indefinite future but will have our special memories of our only real "trip" of summer 2020!