Saturday September 14

We had an early wake up call at the Maple Leaf Motel in Shady Cove when a free range rooster started crowing outside our door at 6:00 am! I thought it was inside the room.

We managed to roll over and get a bit more sleep before heading out to Mac's Diner for breakfast. A really cool little diner with a '57 Chevy theme.

We drove about an hour or so to Crater Lake National Park.

This park was created when Mt Mazama erupted 7,700 years ago and collapsed to form a huge crater that eventually half filled with water from rainfall and snow runoff. It is the deepest lake in the USA and has the clearest water. Deep blue with a depth of 1943 ft. Our first glimpse of the lake...

We proceeded to the Watchman Peak trail which is a hike to the old ranger station that was used for spotting fires. Not a long hike but very vertical with a climb of 500 ft. This gave us a great overview of the lake.

 

The viewpoint is at the top of this peak.

We got back in the car and drove to Cheetwood Cove for our boat trip around the lake.

This trip involved a hike down and back up from the boat ramp which was the equivalent of stair walking a 68 storey building. It was a moderately difficult descent and climb.

We got to the bottom a bit early and got to watch a number of swimmers jumping off the rock cliffs into the beautiful deep blue cold water. Wish we had brought our swimsuits. Here is a series of action shots...

The interpretative two hour boat tour was led by a park ranger and really well done. Some samples of the views....

After the hike back up to the car, we made our way to the Prospect Historic Hotel where we were booked for the next two nights.

A nice hot shower and we were ready for dinner in the Hotel. We both enjoyed the salmon, a bottle of wine and then retired for the evening.

Here is some Oregon trivia: It is illegal for you to pump your own gas! Makes for lots of 8$/hr jobs.