Day 17 – To Crater Lake

Today we are heading to Crater Lake.  Its Friday, 6/16/2017, and we were going to travel south on route-35 and drive by Mt. Hood, but it is still heavily cloudy so we changed our route.  Now we will go to The Dalles and turn south on US-197.  On I-84 we go under an overpass and the railings depict sturgeon, salmon, and trout.

The landscape is different from along the River at Hood River and the waterfalls.  Here we can see more soils on the stone with grasses growing along the side of the hill.

We pass a vineyard and orchard on our way to Crater Lake.  There are some mature vines as well as some newer vines growing on the hillside.  Too bad we don’t have time to go and sample some of their wines.

After driving to the top of the plateau above the Columbia River we can clearly see that we have landed in different terrain.  It was almost a stark change as we go back into rolling hills and grasslands with spotted ranches.

Like much of the grasslands we have traveled through, barns dot the countryside alongside the hay and corn fields.  You can see it raining in the mountains in the background.  

On US-197 we drive by an area that might have given us a good vantage point to see Mt. Hood.  Unfortunately it is raining in that direction and we are happy that we didn’t go in that direction as we would have been driving in the rain.

We have been seeing signs that indicate that this road parallels the Oregon Trail in 1846.  This section is part of the Barlow Road Route and served as the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail.  It is noted that this 100-mile segment was the most harrowing of the nearly 2,000 mile Trail

We drive into Maupin and begin our descent to the Deschutes River.  From the elevation after driving up the mountain we have a good clear view of the river and gorge, even with all of the power lines in the picture.  Shortly afterwards we reached Criterion Summit at an elevation of 3,360 feet.

Just before reaching and turning south on US-97, we are still in rolling hills of the high desert. 

As we descend to lower elevations, we pass a truck runaway ramp.  Just look at the angle of the ramp, it must go up at least a 50 degree angle.

Driving into Madras we can see Mt. Jefferson to the west of us. 

We stopped in Madras for gas, and like New Jersey, according to the law you cannot pump your own gas, an attendant must do it for you.  The attendant pumping our gas told us, when we asked about the crops we have been seeing, she said that they more than likely were carrots.  Interesting!  She said they usually let them grow for a year to let them seed so they can reap the seeds for sale.

The attendant also mentioned an Oregon State Park named Smith Rock and said we should visit it and since it shouldn’t be too far out of our way we decided to go.  Good thing, because the park is really nice and we could have stayed all day hiking and looking at the different views.  Here the river winds its way downstream between high cliffs. 

To get to the trails on the other side of the river, you pass across this bridge.  Then you choices are to go left, right or up.  Going up you cover a number of switchbacks to get to the top trail which then leads around the cliff on the right.  You could be all day just doing that trail by itself.

Here’s Carmen sitting on a stone wall overlooking the ravine. 

As we are walking along the rim trail, we see a number of flowers, most are single or small clumps, but this group was a larger clump of flowers. 

According to the information in the visitor’s building, there are a large number of different birds that call this State Park home, including eagles.  Although this is a picture of an eagle, it is not my picture but one that was on the wall in the Visitor’s Center; love the smaller bird flying over the eagle.  Wish I could have seen the eagle to take its picture.

Since this wasn’t one of our planned stops today, we are not staying very long, so no hour hikes.  But, one of the attendants in the Visitor’s Center was telling another person of an eagles nest on a path along the river, so we are heading to the upper parking lot to go on the rim trail from there to see if we can see down to the nest.  Instead, we see a number of people climbing the cliffs across the river.

Another lone climber and you can see by the chalk on the cliff side where others have made their way up the cliff face.  This woman seems to be taking the center track to the top.

Near where we can see the climbers while still on the rim trail by the upper parking lot, we see this clump of flowers. 

A magpie bird landed on this branch and stayed in one place long enough for Carmen to get a picture before it flew off.  We have seen a number of these birds, but they are either deep in a tree of by the time we take the picture it is flying off.

We could hear a large bird squeaking, and assumed it was coming from the eagle’s nest where a nestling is, but we could not see the nest.  So, before we leave Smith Rock State Park and Crooked River, we get our last look from the parking lot where we took the upper rim trail looking for the eagles nest. 

On our out of the Park, we were going by a ranch with horses and a small shed/barn near the road.  Getting closer I saw something go running by.  When we got to the other side of the building Carmen was able to get a picture of this Marmot or Groundhog, whichever it is.

Almost at a stop sign and our next turn, we see this ram walking along the fence of a fenced in area along with a number of ewes.  We were able to get a quick picture of it since we’ve been looking for mountain sheep while in the mountains and have yet to see any.

We are nearly back to the main road to continue our trek to Crater Lake when we see these animals.  Come to find out they are Scottish Highland cows.  I wonder if they are now American Highland cows since they are now in America.  Now the sign on the side of the road says “No Parking”, but Officer I’m only stopping long enough to take the cow’s picture, honest.

Now how would you like to get your coffee from this place?  Built to look like a covered Conestoga wagon, I wonder if they ring a triangle when they open in the morning.  Take a look at the 1925 Mack truck in front of the coffee shop.

Leaving the coffee shop in Terrebonne behind and just out of town we pass this Alpaca farm named Crescent Moon Farm.  It is apparent that a number of the Alpaca have been shorn as it looks like they are wearing leg warmers.

Passing through Bend, Oregon we do not stop at the Lava Lands National Monument; instead we continue our drive to Crater Lake.  We can see, what we think is Mt. Bachelor to our right as we drive on a Veterans Highway celebrating the Army Camp Abbot from 1942 to 1944. 

We even passed the Newberry Caldera just before reaching La Pine.  And in Gilchrist and Crescent we didn’t even stop at either of these places.  Imagine a Bear, woodchopper, and a stag on a Mohawk sign; what a sight, sounds like the beginning of a joke.  At least we were able to get the picture or you would not have believed me.

We are getting closer and after passing through Chemult, we turn west on route-138 which happens to be the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway.  Every once in a while we get a glimpse of what we think, according to the map location, is Mt. Thielsen.

So here is the dilemma, we have just turned onto route-230 and heading south which means that we missed our turn to enter Crater Lake National Park from the North side; so we are continuing south to route-62 and get to the Park from the south entrance.  In the mean time we stopped at these falls on the Rouge River.

We finally reach Crater Lake and drive to the Rim Village Visitor Center.  Now we know why we missed the North Entrance road, it is closed because of snow.  You can see how much snow there still is at the Visitor Center and the entrance from this building is still closed.

Crater Lake looking at Wizard Island.  Notice how the crater rim just angles down to the waters edge.  There is still plenty of snow at the waters edge and I wonder if there is ice under all of that snow.

This is the right side of Crater Lake, from the south, opposite of Wizard Island.  You can see where avalanches happened and the snow is also still thick near the lake water.

Carmen got this of people standing at the rim and looking out over the Lake and the mountain side beyond.  It looks like the side walls of the Lake are close, but they are a couple miles away.  I thought this was a neat looking picture and the zoom lens changes the perspective and distance between the people and the calderas rim walls.

Here is the building that Carmen was standing next to earlier.  You can see the snow where it was blown up onto the roof.  The stick on the far left end of the picture is about 20+ feet tall and used as an indicator of where the end of the road is. 

I found this mostly dead Juniper sticking out of the snow interesting and wonder why the Park does not clean out the dead or nearly dead growth. 

Crater Lake Lodge sits near the Lakes rim.  You can see the clouds are covering the top of the mountain behind the lodge and the clouds have been dropping lower since we got here.  Again notice one of the depth sticks in the foreground.

We take one last look at the lake from a vantage point near the Lodge.  Here we have a good clear look at the center of the Lake and the waters are very calm, with just enough wind to keep the lake from a mirrored look.

Going to the car in the parking lot, we are amazed at how much snow there still is on June 16^th.  I can see now why the roads have been closed.  Carmen is standing next to the snow bank across the parking lot where we parked our car; it is twice as tall as she is.  I wrote our names in the snow just above her head.

Before leaving the Lake side, we stopped for a comfort break.  While in the building, this picture was on display.  It is a picture; I forget the artist/photographer, of Crate Lake at night and shows the Milky Way during a time-lapsed exposure.  I thought it so nice that I’d share it with you. 

As we leave Crater Lake we notice that we are at an elevation of about 7100 feet.  It feels cold although the temperatures are in the mid to high 40’s.  I also noticed that the depth of the lake is about 1,950 feet.  And driving down the mountain, we know that the next time we come here, it will be mid to late July to give the snow a chance to melt.

Back on route-62 and the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway we are again heading east.  Making a quick stop at a gorge made by Anne Creek we can see a waterfall in the distance.

A closer look at the falls reveals that it looks to be a series of falls and cascades.  Still to be closer for a better picture would a much longer hike and we don’t have the time.

Almost every day we have been on our trip we have come across an interesting barn.  Some older than others, but still many have been really nice.

We are nearing Klamath and make a quick stop at Fort Klamath, a frontier military post, which was established in 1863 and was home to C Troop of the 1^st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry.  I found it interesting that the only building for the fort is the jail.

Tomorrow we will travel south and after entering California, we’ll stop at Lava Beds National Monument then Lassen Volcanic National Park before stopping for the night in Reno.