Crater Lake National Park

Xanterra heard we were coming.  They installed WiFi! 

There are still snow drifts up here.  Some are outside our window, but I didn't have a chance to take a picture of that yet.  The lake is mesmerizing. 

Before we arrived at Crater Lake we finished touring the Bend area.  We traveled to the inactive Newberry Crater where there is a "big obsidian flow."  Perhaps a few of the readers own a piece of jewelry with obsidian.  It is black glass and the result of pressure, heat and just the right minerals in the soil near an erupting volcano. 

The Newberry Caldera shows two craters, both of which are now lakes.  One is named Lake Pauline.  The other is called East Lake.  Both are recreation areas.

Much like other stops, once we get above 5 thousand feet we start to see alpine flowers.  There was a request to pick some and bring them home.  These are National Parks.  It is a federal offense, a crime in fact, to pick them.  Photographs are the best we can do.

Crater Lake is also an inactive volcano.  The Park Ranger beneath my window on the hotel balcony just told his group that the volcano will erupt again in the next 5,000 years.  It is also filled with water and the color is bright blue. 

We are taking a boat around the lake tomorrow.  You can see the small white boat near the island.  The walk to the boat is 1 mile with an elevation change of 700 feet.  The lodge is at 8 thousand feet, our highest elevation for sleeping.

We are staying in the Crater Lake Lodge and our room faces the lake because Jan planned for it a year ago.

We can't wait to see sunset and a full moon!!!