Crater Lake Crowds and Snow

May 27, 2014

Sunday we drove to Crater Lake National Park. Having found out that the North Entrance had just been cleared of snow, we were able to make a short drive to reach the park. Driving to the higher elevations to reach the rim at about 6,000', we began to actually drive on the plowed roads. The snow had been piled from three feet to over ten feet high beside the roadway.

We reached the first scenic overlook at the junction of the park road and the Rim Road that encircles the crater. It was completely parked up. Every overlook from there on to the Rim Lodge area was full and cars had begun to be parked along the roadside as well. We continued on to the Rim Village to discover a full parking lot and lots of people driving through it and walking around the area. We lucked into an RV space that was partially taken up by a car and took some time to eat lunch before we went exploring.

After lunch we started walking through the crowds. The Rim Road the rest of the way around the crater had not been plowed, and all the hiking trails were still snow covered. We could rent snow shoes, to hike, but that idea didn't appeal to us, so we walked with the crowds across the packed snow to the rim. A lot of the crowd were families that were there to let their children play in the snow. I got hit by an errant snowball. Other people were ignoring the signs and barricades set up to keep people off of the snowy ledges hanging over the rim.

 The sky was clear, the sun out, and the temperature in the 50's, so it was a beautiful day. The lake is a breathtaking blue, but hard to appreciate when people are constantly walking in front of you for photo opportunities! We walked through the historic lodge, and the small visitor center, but the outdoor geologic exhibits were still snowed in. Greg pieced together the geology from the park brochure.

Winter "tunnel" into the rest rooms to allow access when buried in snow

Crater Lake Lodge

Lodge Lobby

Greg's commentary – Mount Mazama is one of the biggest and most active Cascades volcanoes. It had erupted regularly for several hundred thousand years, growing to an estimated 12,000 feet tall. 7,500 years ago (only yesterday in geological time), Mazama erupted an enormous cloud of ash and pumice, about 50 times that of the recent Mount Saint Helens eruption. This emptied the magma chamber below the mountain, allowing the peak to collapse, creating a very deep crater. Snow and rain filled the crater to form a six-mile wide lake as much as 4,000 feet deep that has since filled with eroded sediment to a depth of 2,000 feet, making Crater Lake the deepest lake in the US. The lake has no inlet other than snow and rain, which gives it the some purest natural water known. The dramatic beauty of the area attracted the attention of prominent conservationists in the late 1800s and it was made a national park in the early 1900s.

We took some photos and got back in the rig and drove back the way we came in. The overlooks were still parked up, but now cars were being parked in the road because the shoulders were buried in snow banks! Park rangers were giving citations to those cars that were blocking the road. I yelled thank you out the window to them. I'm sure they got a lot of negativity from people, and I wanted them to know they were appreciated!

No Shoulder room and some snow banks were taller than the RV

We wound up back at Diamond Lake an hour after we left there. The sun was still shining, and at 1,000' feet lower in elevation it was warmer and had no snow, so we sat in our chairs along the lake at our great campsite and enjoyed our quiet, private space. Crater Lake was beautiful, but on a holiday weekend, just too crowded to enjoy!