We passed the south end of Upper Klamath Lake yesterday. Today we drove along most of the east side of its 25-mile shore. It looked like it should have lots of fish but there wasn't a single boat in sight either on our way up or back.
Mount Mazama holding Crater Lake.
Mount Mazama had been an active volcano for 400,000 years and was 12,000 feet high when it blew its top 7,700 years ago. It kept erupting for several hundred years more, but when the magma chamber underneath emptied itself the weight on top was too much and it collapsed into a caldera.
Further activity eventually sealed the bottom of the caldera and it started filling with rainwater and snowmelt. It became the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,943 feet. Average snow at the crater is 44 feet per year so it has plenty of water to replenish what it loses by evaporation.
The scene most often shown of Crater Lake is with Wizard Island, a cinder cone which built up from the bottom of the caldera. The blue of the water is just as intense as the pictures of it, but pictures can't convey the size of the lake. It is really massive.
The wind was howling on the west side of the rim where this picture was taken. We were thinking we'd made a serious mistake by not bringing heavier coats, but when we got to the east side we found no wind over there. There's an amazing difference between one side and the other.
This is the south side of the tree. You just can't trust moss to point to north here. It grows all around the trees. It's more yellow-green than other moss so it's obviously not directional moss. :-D
Two of the Cascades' lesser volcanoes to the south of Crater Lake....Mount McLoughlin on the left (9,495 ft) and Union Peak on the right (7,709 ft). Mount Shasta is also visible from the rim drive but there was too much smoke in the air today to get a picture worth posting.
Llao Rock, one of the three points on the rim over 8,900 feet. It formed when lava filled an explosion crater on the north slope of the mountain. As Mazama collapsed,
A sizable section of the West Rim Drive is being rebuilt so the road has to be shared by visitors, dump trucks, asphalt recyclers and paving machines. There are many places where the road drops off for hundreds of feet with no barriers. We no longer have a clean truck, but Jim knew it wouldn't last long when he washed it yesterday.
Looking to the northeast and Sharp Peak, not a very original name. On the lake out of sight to the right is the dock area for the park service's tour boats. The 2.2 mile round trip hike down and back up to the rim road is really strenuous so we didn't plan on doing it. There's no place around the lake where the road gets anywhere close to the water.
Here's another much photographed part of the lake.....the Phantom Ship. It looks tiny from the rim but is actually the height of a 17-story building.
We took the 6-mile side road over to see the Pinnacles, fossil fumaroles from Mazama's eruptions.
When a pyroclastic flow buried this river bed the resulting steam escaped through vents. The minerals and extreme heat of the steam welded the ash and pumice into these shapes which are gradually being revealed through erosion of the softer rock around them.
It's hard to imagine that Crater Lake is just six miles from this very different landscape.
From the Pinnacles to the end of the rim road there's only one place to see the lake and it required a hike we didn't have time to take. We did stop at the one waterfall on the rim, Vidae Falls. It drains a very small area near the rim but is also fed by a small but consistent spring so it always puts on a good show.
Tomorrow we're going 165 miles south to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We're staying in a tiny town near the park which has no cell service and minimal wifi. From what I've read on the park service site, no commercial campground in the park's vicinity has cell service so the area is really remote. If I can't find a way to upload I'll catch up with posting when we get to Reno on Monday.
It was April and the edges of the crater and sides of the road were snowfilled when I drove here. Your photos show me a fabulously different sight. Thanks for that!!!
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