A volcanic lake and crazy tall trees

Day 26: Stops – Redwood National Park, CA; Crater Lake National Park, OR

Hike: Lady Bird Grove in Redwood National Park (1.5 miles); Crater Lake West Rim toward Watchman Overlook (2.5 miles).

This morning we awoke to a gorgeous fog covering the forest ground with towering Redwoods overhead.

 

We made our way to the Lady Bird Grove trail to get a close up look of some redwoods. You can stand inside many of the trees that have been hollowed out by forest fires.

 

We then drove to the town of Klamath where we found the Redwood that you can drive through for just $5. We thought it was totally worth it. Who hasn’t grown up wanting to do that?!

 

 

We continued our drive through many more of the forests that make up the national park. And finally arrived in Oregon, where gas is 40 cents cheaper than California! In southern Oregon we crossed the Rogue River, but unfortunately the brewery is located up in Portland so we were without Rogue beer. As we drove into Crater Lake National Park it was filled with snow. At the visitor’s center the snow was about 14 feet tall. There we obtained a back-country pass and decided to head out on the west rim of Crater Lake with our rented snow shoes.

We hiked on the road until Discovery point and then donned our snowshoes and hiked inward toward the lake. Our first views of the lake were spectacular.

Because Crater Lake was formed from a volcanic eruption it has no rivers flowing in or out and its only water source is precipitation. Crater Lake is one of the clearest and cleanest lakes in the world. As we continued our hike we fell several times in our snow shoes, at times choosing to slide down steep hills instead of walk.

Eventually we came upon a shoveled out space perfect for our tent, the snow and trees providing a barrier to the wind as we pitched our tent just inland from the cliff.

We dropped our packs here and continued the hike along the rim, turning back at sunset and collecting some dry wood for a fire.

 

It was a full moon, providing an incredible view of the lake at night and the surrounding mountains on the opposing side of the lake.  We melted some ice and after a long wait it came to a boil. Jeremy cooked us Velveeta as I took pictures of the lake.

 

 

 

And we grabbed our beers that we cooled in the snow near our tent. We headed in for the night and quickly the snow underneath our tent chilled our sleeping bags and us inside of them. Wearing snowpants, winter coats, and hats was still not adequate for the 19 degree farenheit weather on top of snow but we managed to get some sleep .

Must Do: Crater Lake West rim hike in the winter