| Crater
Lake is the main reason I decided to stay in this part of
Oregon through the winter and summer of 2005. From the many
tempting pictures I'd seen for years, I just had to see for
myself if something on this earth could possibly be that clearly
blue and beautiful. |
|
|
| February
5, 2005 - This was the first day
I made it all the way to Crater Lake. I had headed that way before,
but always turned back at Union Creek. That was about where the roads
would be way too snowy for me to feel comfortable driving on them. |
|
|
Even
though the roads were mostly clear on this day, the snow was piled
up on the side as high as the top of my car. Doesn't the poor little
Saturn look a bit intimidated by it all? 
|
|
|
|
The
Welcome sign was almost buried, but look how clear and blue the
sky was that day, providing a great show of contrast of white against
blue, cool against warm.
|
|
|
|
The
front entrance to the Visitor's Center was completely blocked, but
they were open on this day. You could get inside via a snow tunnel
to the side. I had to laugh when the ranger told me how little snow
they got this year compared to most!
|
|
|
|
This
was my reward for a 4 hour day getting here (I really dawdled a
lot - everything was just so pretty all the way there). But here
is where I had my little picnic lunch and gave thanks for being
able to experience this kind of day. I love RVing! No matter how
many enticing pictures I've seen of this lake, none of them could
match the experience of being there in person. The complete quiet
and calm of the water, the cool crispness of the snow with the sun
there to warm me, trying to grasp that I was at the rim of a massive
sunken volcanic crater and the power it took to produce it...
|
|
|
|
...this
is the scene I was looking out at. Need I tell you this was another
one of those times when I sat and cried at the beauty I have been
blessed to see?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
