Crater Lake

Monday morning (Aug 20) we got up early to get ready to head to our next destination, Crater Lake.  Before leaving Union Creek, we got Emily and Colby some souvenir t-shirts and candy canes they had been begging us for.  Then we went to one more site on the Rogue River, the Rogue Gorge.

Here the Rogue River flows through a constricted channel of basalt lava creating a deep gorge.  The thing I thought was cool about this was that before the water went into the gorge it was spread out into many little river and then it plummets all together in to the gorge and there is so much water running so fast through the gorge.

These two were so funny to walk with.  They just ran along the trails together and had to go at their own pace.  Colby hated being carried so if he got behind we would tell him to go catch up with Sister and he would run to her.  Anytime Emily saw something she thought was cool she would sit by it and ask me to take her picture.  Colby would run and sit by her too.

Along the Rogue Gorge trail, is this Living Stump:

This tree had grafted its roots into the tree next to it so when it got cut down, it never died.  It kept living because its roots were connected to the living tree next to it.  Russell had a picture by this stump while on his mission so I put it in for comparison!

Here we are at the top of the river before it goes into the gorge.

We headed back to the car and made our way up to Crater Lake.  It was also amazing!!

As you can see, Crater Lake was so beautiful!  The lake was made by a caved in volcano.  The top of the volcano is behind us in the picture above on Wizard Island.  When the volcano erupted a really long time ago, the sides and everything caved in and then over the years it slowly filled with water.  It is believed that it took 800 years to fill with water.  The lake is 6 miles across and averages 1,500 ft deep but the deepest point is around 1,900 feet.  All around the lake are steep cliff edges so you can't get down to the water.  Not that you would want to get in the water though because the water is only about 34 degrees. There is one place that you can get down to the water but only if you have a ticket to go on the boat tour of the lake.  We wanted to go on the boat tour but we didn't know you had to buy the tickets days in advance.  So next time we go (someday) we will do the boat tour. 

Russell went to Crater Lake on a P-day with some investigators so I included a picture of him then to compare with now.  He looks so young and little!  He went in the winter before and there was like 15 feet of snow!  He said it looks a lot prettier in the summer.

Here is another view of the Lake.

At lunch time we had a picnic in the picnic areas near the Lake:

Lunch was always a favorite time for the kids because it meant running around and playing and also meant cookies after eating their sandwiches!

After lunch, we walked through the gift shops and got a few souvenirs to remember our trip to Crater Lake.  Then we drove around the lake on our way to our next stop in Salem, OR.

On our way around Emily spotted this waterfall out the window and we had to stop.  This was the Vidae Falls.  It must have come out of Crater Lake because the lake was just behind that mountain but I'm not sure.  Good eyes, Emily.

As we continued around the Lake, we came to the next tourist site where we could see the Phantom Ship.  The rock formation out in the lake is called Phantom Ship because it looks like a ship out in the middle of Crater Lake.

Just outside of Crater Lake at Diamond Lake is the place we spent the most money on gas.  The gas at this little station was $4.99 a gallon!  We decided to just get 2 gallons so we could get to the next city and pay a dollar less than that. 

I had to take a picture of the road because this is what every road we drove on in Oregon looked like.  All of the roads were tree lined like this and we were driving through forests everywhere we went.  It was very scenic and I loved it.

Along our 5 hour drive to Salem, OR, we made a little pit stop at the Toketee Falls.  Along the parking lot of the trail to the Falls was this huge water pipe.  It was full of water and also full of holes!  There was water spraying out every so often and Emily and Colby had a blast walking through it and jumping in the puddles.

The hike up to the Toketee Falls was 1 mile round trip.  The falls were beautiful and worth the hike.  Russell even practised his Fire Fighter physical by packing both Emily and Colby up the 100 or so stairs on the way there and back. 

Then it was back in the car for another 3 or 4 hours until we finally got to our hotel in Salem.