Day 58 Crater Lake

Today was a little bit of a late start. We slept in a little then had a breakfast. We drove to Hayward Field to check it out. Then we took a short drive up to Pre's Rock. After that we made our way down the road to Crater Lake.

 

The kids racing

 

Crater Lake is amazing. It is only about 5 miles wide by 6 miles long, but the depth and clarity are some of the most amazing things about it. It is about 1900 feet deep and scientists have seen an object 144 feet below the surface of the lake. It would take the Eiffel Tower, the Washington Monument, and the Statue of Liberty stacked on top of each other to almost make it from the bottom to the surface. Almost. The Lake is unique, because it has no inlet or outlet of water. The water that gets trapped inside the caldera come from about 500 inches of snow each year. There are a lot more cool things about this place as well, but if you want to know them you need to visit. The kids worked on another Junior Ranger booklet to earn their 16th Jr. Ranger badge over the last few years. Over the past few years we have been to the First National Park (Yellowstone), First Monument (Devils Tower), Most Visited (Smoky Mountains), and Smallest Park (Hot Springs) Now we just need to make our way to Alaska to see the Biggest and least visited. Maybe next summer...

working on JR. Ranger

Jr. Ranger

#16

view down to the lake from near the visitor center

 

From the peak down to water level is how deep the lake is.

That is also still snow down at the waters edge

Patch for going to the Ranger Program.

 

Medford, Oregon is home for the night. Aunt Yvonne gave the kids little travel bags for our trip and the one they opened today was a few bucks for them to treat us to dinner tonight. Is was very cool.
Tomorrow we are making our way to Redwoods. We will be spending the week or so travelling throughout Northern California and some Nevada. We plan on camping a few more nights, visiting at least 3 more National Parks, and hanging out with friends and family in Cali.   

Red Sun going down through the smoke

 

Racing