Trip Journal: Day 3-A Day at Crater Lake and Beyond

Monday, September 12th

Early morning photos by Wayne behind Jo's Motel

After the previous night of not enough sleep and a busy day the day before, I was very tired and glad that Wayne was comfortable with me sleeping later the morning of the third day. The hard mattress didn't keep me from sleeping a full eight hours. Wayne, being on EST still, woke early again and slipped out to the river bank with his cell phone to take early morning photos. When he cam back in, the timing was good because I was waking up. We didn't think the night before about leaving some food and the good camera out in his area instead of in the room with me where the table and chairs were. I have to admit that we were pretty tired the night before and maybe not thinking ahead.

Right away Wayne shared what a marvelous time he'd had out by the river and proposed that since we'd be able to explore the East Rim drive during the afternoon, he wondered how I'd feel about staying right there for the rest of the morning and go down and sit by the river some more and enjoy that peaceful and beautiful spot for a couple of hours until time to check out at 11 am. I agreed happily. It sounded lovely to me. He went back out quickly with the Canon camera while I showered and got ready for the day, then came back in to join me for a breakfast of cereal, milk and fruit. He showered while I did the bulk of my packing.

We headed down to the river with our chairs again and enjoyed an hour or so in a little piece/peace of heaven on earth, talking and being quiet and soaking in the warming morning sun and watching the water flow by. He said there had been frost on the ground when he came out, so I was secretly glad we were in a nice warm set of rooms and not in a tent out doors.

My photo, as we enjoyed the later morning 

At 10:30 we headed back and finished packing and loading up the car and checked out on the dot of 11. We started out of town then, but when I mentioned that I'd taken some photos of the old buildings when Harry and I were there a few years ago, Wayne suddenly realized he was missing a chance to take some of the kinds of photos he likes to take the most. There is an old clapboard hotel boarded up across the street, and a derelict gas station that presented great rustic shots, both from a distance and macro shots extremely close up. I first took some photos of the motel and a few shots of the line of flags along the street that spoke of a quiet community spirit connected to the cluster of homes that make up this tiny community.

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I loved the patterns and textures in this old hotel

Wayne's shot of this old hotel across the street from our motel

Wayne has a great eye for the close up details

Old Gas station next to the hotel

Wayne commented on how he liked the weathered for sale sign on the deteriorating structure

When we got on the road headed back to Crater Lake it was close to noon and the perfect timing to carry out our plan A for lunch at the lodge dining room. He treated for Multnoma Lodge, so I told him I wanted to treat for this lodge dining experience. There was room for us to be seated right away in the rustic dining room. Wayne fully enjoyed a wonderful, perfectly done mixed grill of beef, pork and chicken with the perfect mix of vegetables and herbed steak fries. I had the 'Great Hall Strata' which the menu describes as: 'Two eggs, baby spinach, mushrooms, tomato, onion, Tillamook cheddar cheese, and sourdough bread baked to perfection, topped with sour cream and fresh chives and served with sea salt and herb steak fries.' It was the perfect, perfect dish, and one of the few I've ever resolved to learn to make for myself at home.

View taken by Marilu on the way to the lodge for lunch

View taken by Wayne on the way to the Lodge for lunch

Golden ground squirrel near the lodge

When we walked from our far away parking to the lodge we walked along the edge in the frigid cold wind taking some photos. When we were done eating we opted to return to the car more directly to avoid the wind. At the car a couple of pieces of chocolate added a bite of sweet dessert to finish off our meal. We then headed back down towards the start of the East Loop drive. We had planned to stop at the visitor's center and watch the 20 minute film and look at the exhibits, but Wayne pointed out that if we did that we would take away time from seeing the actual lake. Our morning idyll by the river had taken up that time and I agreed that I would also prefer more time with the actual environment than learning about it. We were both ultimately happy with that decision.

We used the Park Service map and newspaper to learn more about what we were seeing and to plan our stops around the rim. We learned as we went that one stop we skipped we ended up going back to and stops we considered skipping but didn't invariably rewarded us with visual treats we didn't expect. We were continually amazed at the wonders of the different overlooks. We did skip one long side trip regretfully, but made up for that by taking a nice hike on a .8 mile loop trail to Sun Notch through forest and meadow to a series of overlooks that afforded wonderful views of the Phantom Ship, a rock that resembles a fanciful idea of a sailing ship.

Phantom Ship Rock

Phantom Ship Rock

Framed view of Mt. Thielsen

Looking across the meadow while hiking the Sun Notch loop trail. We had come on the trail from around the other side of the meadow and along the rim to view the lake from a succession of viewpoints. 

It was amazing how tough it was making the easy hikes we did that day and the next. We were at a much higher altitude than our sea level systems were used to. My legs handled the inclines easily, with no burning muscles, but my lungs labored and my heart pounded so that I had to stop occasionally, and Wayne was usually right there with me catching his breath and letting his heart rate slow down before going on. On the hike to view the Phantom Ship we also talked to various other hikers and exchanged photo taking with a couple from Texas  while enjoying the husband's very deep and unique accent.

Trail friends took some photos of us.

We stopped at the Pumice Castle Overlook to get a closer look at a formation that I spotted from the far side of the crater, an outcropping of sculpted red stone that resembles a fantasy land castle. I was fascinated by the castle and the many other visible layers of deposits from the crater's volcanic past. After that we had thought we might skip the Cloud Cap overlook since the crater was the crater, and we'd seen so much of it already, but we stopped and were blown away by the enchanting sparkles spread across the lake's surface. It seemed like all along the way we just happened to get to spots at just the right lighting for the most enjoyment.

Pumice Castle

Pumice Castle and surrounding volcanic layers

View from Cloud cap overlook

To tell the truth, as the trip went on it began to feel like our progress was almost charmed, that we were protected, helped, and  blessed all along the way. Wayne had begun to suffer from a head cold, and we were worried that the enjoyment of the trip would be destroyed for both of us. He normally gets hit by colds really hard and has to go to bed. I knew the changing altitudes would be misery with congested ears and sinuses, and that the misery of colds would take the joy from our trip. We were so grateful when our prayers were answered and not only did his cold never get severe, and quickly heal, but I never contracted it myself. What a wonderful blessing that was. So often when it seemed we might miss something we really wanted to see or we worried about finding a place to stay for the night, things just fell into place and worked out for the best. It was also a wonderful experience for me to join with Wayne in starting and ending our days with prayer together and blessing the food at each meal, taking turns as we went. I pray alone and silently at home since this isn't something Harry has any desire for, so it was lovely to have someone to pray with at those touchstone times each day. We prayed for our health and safety, for our family back home, and for every other need, along with continual thanks for our wonderful blessings.

At many spots we had great views of Mount Thielsen, the peak that sticks up like a shark's tooth, view-able at various points approaching Crater Lake from the north end and throughout the park. This was the case at  Sun Notch and other stops along this section of the east rim. The following shots wee taken as we left the park.

Eventually we got around the whole loop at close to the same time we had arrived the day before. Since we already had photos from that area in the same light we, with some feelings of sad goodbye, headed out of the park on the road where we came in the day before, ready to head South on Highway 230 looking for a campground. We left the park at 4:40 and wanted to be stopped if possible by 6 Pm so we could get camp set up, make dinner and wash the dishes before dark. I was dubious, and researched via my GPS connection as we went. I also asked that we not camp unless we could get to a low enough altitude so that it wouldn't freeze in camp overnight. I was ok with mid '40s, but not eager to see 31 degrees overnight. We dropped continually as we drove, the road weaving through lush green forest occasionally crossing and flanking the tumbling clear water of mountain streams ind rivers. It was breathtakingly beautiful country.

We ended up stopping just short of Union, the historic CCC camp of depression era fame, preserved as a historic site with some tourist amenities. Our stop was at Farewell Bend State park, and though there were no showers or hot running water, there was a camp host, firewood for sale, plumbed bathrooms, and quiet, spacious riverside camp sites. We chose one at a spot where we had no close neighbors and the bathroom and water spigot directly across from our campsite. It was ideal in every way but one, which was that the river didn't rush musically past our campsite as we had hoped it would. the force of the river was hidden behind an island that flanked our site. Having the bathroom so close was nice, and even nicer was having few neighbors and mostly RVs in the camp so that we have almost no one using the bathroom we were camped by. This camp didn't have any biting bugs, which was nice.

Our spacious, quiet camp at Farewell Bend State park

It was fun to finally have a chance to set up our camp and enjoy time around the fire

We quickly set up camp and got dinner going. I had a 12 oz package of ground bison that I sauteed with a bunch of vegetables. We ate it all up and had cookies an a little chocolate for dessert. Wayne started a fire with the wood he bought, but he was missing his heavy camping knife for splitting it up into kindling and tinder and more burnable pieces. He made do with petroleum jelly and paper towels for fire starter and ended up putting the fire on the grate of the fire ring to get more air around the pieces. I finished up the dishes and packing away the food and dishes into the van just as it became really dark. It was lovely sitting by the campfire talking into the night.  We were already done with Crater Lake and it was only Monday. It felt as if we had all the time in the world to see whatever we wanted to before we had to be back on Saturday the 17th. We got the wood all burned up and put the campfire out with the dish washing water around 11 pm and snuggled into our sleeping bags for a good night.