Crater Lake

I’m kind of at a loss for words, so this post will be mostly pictures. Wow, Crater Lake is totally amazing. I’d heard that it was awesome, and I’d been wanting to see it ever since I became a resident of Oregon. We visited it on a beautiful day, and got a lot of good photos, but you’ve got to see it for yourself. The RGB spectrum on your computer monitor just can’t contain the BLUE…

We had some visitors from California, BN’s dad and stepmom. They’d brought our 12-year-old nephew TG with them (who’ll be staying with us until we drive down to BN’s brother JC’s wedding this weekend.)
We arrived at Crater Lake in the late morning, and we took in the views, had a picnic lunch, and checked out the visitor center. Then my in-laws left for their long drive home, while BN, TG and I staked out our campsite for an overnight. The next morning we went back to the lake and it was even more mirror-like and gorgeous.

Did I mention how BLUE the lake is? Well. Yeah… it’s pretty darn blue. The interpretive content explained to us that the water is very clear and pure, that’s why the other spectrum colors get absorbed. Not very much animal, vegetable, or mineral matter there for red, green, or yellow to get reflected from… just blue, blue, blue. The unretouched image below looks like a blue sky over a crisp January day, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s not. It’s actually a view down the steep crater into the water of Crater Lake. And yes, there is still a lot of snow in July. It looks cool as a lacy edge to the lake. Big piles of snow in our campground, actually… which was bad because mosquitoes seem to breed in snow or something… we got eaten during our little campout. Nothing to compare to the National Antelope Refuge of course.

So, yeah. Go to Crater Lake. It’s definitely worth the trip, and you can visit us while you’re in the area!