Visiting Oregon’s Beautiful Crater Lake
Different people have different priorities and wishes when planning their vacations or extended weekends. Some people prefer to head towards tourist attractions that although they are crowded, are always action packed. Other people seek out exotic tropical locations either nearby or halfway around the world. Still others like to immerse themselves in an urban area they have always dreamed about visiting and experiencing as much about the city as possible. When searching for a beautiful and secluded place to visit though, few vacationers could match the scenery and surroundings of Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Located in southern Oregon, Crater Lake formed in the crater of Mount Mazama after the mountain erupted and collapsed inward on itself. The water inside the lake comes almost exclusively from natural rain and snow melt, making it some of the purest water that can be found any where in North America. There are no rivers or streams that flow into or out of Crater Lake. Crater Lake is approximately five by six miles across and has an amazing average depth of 1,148 feet. The deepest point ever measured in the lake is at a depth of 1,949 feet, which makes Crater Lake not only the deepest lake in the state of Oregon, but the deepest lake in the entire United States. There have been several smaller eruptions over the years, although none in modern times, that have resulted in a smaller cone being built up in the middle of the lake. This new cone was named Wizard Island as it now extends above the surface of the water and somewhat resembles a wizard’s hat.
Though the lake and its surroundings are now part of Crater Lake National Park, there are a number of developed areas within an easy drive that provide food and lodging to the many visitors that make the trek there every year. Along the rim of the lake is the Crater Lake lodge building which houses a gift shop and cafe and is a nice place to get a bite to eat when visiting there. Rim Drive is a road that circumnavigates the entire mountain top lake and is a wonderful way of seeing all aspects of this amazing natural wonder, due to heavy snow the drive is closed during certain parts of the winter months. There are also boat tours that take visitors out on the water of Crater Lake, including the opportunity to depart the boat for a short visit on Wizard Island. This can provide some of the most memorable times of a visit to the lake, but it also requires a bit of a hike down to the boat dock.
There are a number of other things to do in and around Crater Lake too. To the west is the beautiful Oregon Coast which caters to anyone interested in boating, fishing, beach recreation and more including visiting the world famous Oregon Dunes. To the south of Crater Lake is Northern California and all that that region supplies to visitors that travel there every year. Bend, Oregon is a wonderful Eastern Oregon community that sits a couple hours northwest of the lake. Though the lake is somewhat remote, it is also easy to get to from a number of urban areas. The lake itself is only 119 miles from Bend, 250 miles from Portland, 422 miles from Seattle and 450 miles from San Francisco.
For hundreds of years before its discovery by settlers from Europe, Crater Lake had been a very sacred site for many of the Native Americans that lived in the area. A legend from the Klamath tribe says that there was a battle between the sky god and god of the underworld and during the mayhem Mount Mazama was destroyed, and left in its place was Crater Lake. The magnitude of the beauty and uniqueness of Crater Lake has played a large role in the history of this area of Oregon for centuries.
A visit to Crater Lake is awe-inspiring and it is quite common that travelers will be mesmerized by the beauty of the water as well as the realization that they are looking at a lake that is sitting on top of a mountain in what was once an active volcano crater. The beauty of the area doesn’t stop with the water though as the surrounding Cascade Mountains almost equal the visual splendor that the lake provides. For hundreds of years, and possibly even longer, men have made the journey to see this fascinating piece of scenery. Any visitor lucky enough to make the journey today is sure to leave with memories that will last them a lifetime.