First thing this morning we went to the visitor center to check out hiking opportunities and to get the lay-of-the-land. We saw a great video that explained how the crater was created. The short version - a volcano blew its top off and the mountain collapsed into the hole left by the explosion. Over centuries snow melt and rain have filled the hole. Because no other water has entered this hole, no creak or river has flowed into it, Crater Lake is the purest water in the world. The lake is almost 2,000 feet deep. We heard one man say that if you stacked the Eiffel Tower, George Washington monument and the Statue of Liberty on top of each other, the statue's torch would still be 100 feet below the surface. The blue color is due to absorption of light with only the blue spectrum visible to the human eye. The lake is 4 miles across at the narrowest and 6 mile across at its widest.
It is Beautiful! We've never seen such a deep, pure blue water. The towering sides add to it grandeur and impact and while snow is on parts of it and on the surrounding mountain peaks that just accentuates its purity. The closest part of the rim to the surface of the lake is a mile hike over about 1000 feet. A Rim Road goes all the way around the lake and if it were open, it would be a 33 mile drive but they have closed about 1/3 of the road due to repair work and snow. Speaking of snow, we discovered that summer doesn't start at Crater Lake until tomorrow, June 28. The boat rides on the lake start then, the ranger talks start then and so do the trolley rides around the rim.
We drove the rim road to take in different vistas of the lake and then hiked the mile down to the boat dock which we will do again tomorrow. We also took a short off-trail hike after our picnic lunch and almost got lost! But it was so pretty and peaceful in the woods despite all the mosquitoes.
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