Crater Lake Retrospective

Last fall, Jacob and I went with my parents on a short driving tour in Oregon down to Crater Lake National Park. There are so many beautiful places in the world to see, but I think Crater Lake provides a unique experience for visitors. In 1902, it was the fifth national park designated by the National Park Service, making it one of the oldest national parks in the country.

The Cascade Mountain Range extends from British Columbia in the north to northern California in the south. It is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and is the site of several volcanic eruptions in recent and past history in the continental United States. Crater Lake was formed when Mt. Mazama erupted spectacularly, leaving a deep crater. While science can provide the factual proof of when the mountain erupted (5700 BC), the Klamath tribe of Southern Oregon provides the cultural history through legends of how the mountain came to erupt (during a war between two great chiefs). Over the millennia, Crater Lake has slowly filled with water from rain and snow melt. While there are some active hot springs, there are no tributaries outside of the caldera into the lake.

The resulting clarity of the deepest lake in the U.S. (maximum depth of 1,949 feet and one of the ten deepest lakes in the word) is astounding. When it can do nothing more than reflect the blue sky above, the results are some of the clearest, bluest water that can be seen anywhere in the world.

On our visit in mid-October, the first snow had fallen literally the night before and we had a wonderful introduction to late fall in the Cascades.