Crater Lake National Park — July 13-July 23, 2018

On July 13 we (Tusen Takk & Dolce Vita) moved on to the Boise Riverside RV Park, where we spent a pleasant several days enjoying the surroundings.  The Park is adjacent to the Boise River and the 26-mile trail along its shore.  We crashed a baseball game featuring the minor league home team of the Hawks.

On the 16th we went on to the home, in McCall, ID, of Tom & Leslie Arnold, site of the Caribbean cruiser reunion the previous year.  There we helped Tom install solar panels on his fifth wheel camper and enjoyed once again the hospitality of the friendly couple.  Alas, Barb stubbed her toe on a piece of furniture in our RV; the resulting injury (later confirmed as a break) was destined to plague her for weeks and weeks and weeks into the future.

We departed on the 19th, overnighted in the Harney County Fairgrounds in Burns, OR, and arrived at the Diamond Lake RV Park on the 20th.  Roberta & Michael (Celilo) joined us the next day, turning our twosome into a threesome that would persist for over a month.

We had stopped at Diamond Lake not for its attractions, which were minimal, but because it was as close as we could get to RV lodging near Crater Lake.  We visited Crater Lake National Park on two consecutive days.  The first was quite smokey due to forest fires in the general area.  Indeed, we could see from a high point in the Park one fire raging in the not-very distance.  The second day was not better, but we continued our traversal around to the various overlooks on the Rim Drive.  We also  drove down the six mile Pinnacles Road that forks to the southeast off the Rim Drive and descends through thickly forested terrain, past a trailhead for Vidae Falls (to which we hiked, with Barb waiting in the car), ending at a parking area on the rim of Wheeler Creek canyon, known as Pinnacle Valley. The formations rise up in the ravine below, formed of conglomerate-type rocks – compressed pumice and ash from long ago volcanic eruptions. Originally, when this material formed a thick, unbroken not-yet-hard layer, hot gases escaping from below created long, narrow holes (called fumaroles) which,  surrounded by a heat-hardened lining, are now left exposed as the softer deposits have eroded away.

from Wikipedia: 

Crater Lake is a caldera lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot-deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. With a depth of 1,949 feet the lake is the deepest in the United States. Crater Lake features two small islands. Wizard Island, located near the western shore of the lake, is a cinder cone approximately 316 acres in size. Phantom Ship, a natural rock pillar, is located near the southern shore.

Mount Mazama, part of the Cascade Range volcanic arc, was built up over a period of at least 400,000 years. The caldera was created in a massive volcanic eruption between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago that led to the subsidence of Mount Mazama. Since that time, all eruptions on Mazama have been confined to the caldera. Sediments and landslide debris also covered the caldera floor. Eventually, the caldera cooled, allowing rain and snow to accumulate and form a lake. Landslides from the caldera rim thereafter formed debris fans and turbidite sediments on the lake bed. Fumaroles and hot springs remained common and active during this period. Also after some time, the slopes of the lake’s caldera rim more or less stabilized, streams restored a radial drainage pattern on the mountain, and dense forests began to revegetate the barren landscape. It is estimated that about 720 years was required to fill the lake to its present depth of 594 metres. Much of this occurred during a period when the prevailing climate was less moist than at present.  Some hydrothermal activity remains along the lake floor, suggesting that at some time in the future, Mazama may erupt once again.