Crater Lake

The RV Park we had booked for our time around Crater Lake National Park was in the small town of Prospect, Oregon.  I arrived early afternoon and got the trailer set up while the girls stopped in Grants Pass to get groceries.  Cell service at the campground was basically non-existent but they had good Wi-Fi so I was able to get a message out to Julie letting her know what site we were in and learned that they were still a couple of hours behind me (turns out shopping at Wal-Mart with three little girls takes a lot longer than when a solo adult goes)!  Once they arrived we unloaded her car, explored the park on our bikes, and took a short hike right from our campground through the woods to hidden lake.  

The next morning we hit up the fish hatchery at Lost Creek Lake where we saw lots of little fish in the main runs and a couple of bigger fish trying to climb the fish ladder from the river so they could spawn.  The most fun part was feeding some very large rainbow trout that were in smaller round runs that we thought were empty when we first arrived, so thanks to the other tourists we saw wandering that way with buckets of food! 

After the hatchery we had lunch at a cute little cafe in the town of Prospect and hiked a short distance from a roadside trailhead to a couple of beautiful waterfalls.  We are starting to see a trend where the girls seem to have endless energy to run and jump around in the trailer, just to see it fade into “exhaustion” about 50 steps into any hike but luckily Julie picked up a Tula carrier large enough to hold Reagan so she got to ride on my back on the return trip to the car.  

We loaded back up and headed towards the National Park, with a quick stop for ice cream along the way.  We got into the park and headed straight to the visitor center where we watched the park movie and the girls earned Junior Ranger badges just before they closed for the day.  We then drove a short ways down the east rim road to a trailhead where the girls got to play in the snow - the park gets 42 feet per year, so there was plenty left even in late June - and then we took a short walk and got our first views of the lake, just above ghost ship rock.  Although I had seen plenty of pictures, and we had just watched the park movie, it is hard to express how awe inspiring it was to see the lake in person.  We took in the beauty from several viewpoints along the trail before getting more snow time on the way back to the car.

The next day started with pastries and coffee provided by the campground for all their guests, which they do every Saturday.  Next came a a trip to the salon (read scissors and clippers at the trailer) where Reagan got a trim from Julie and Palmer gave me the old #4 special.

After an afternoon of bike riding and catching up on laundry we joined the rest of the campers at the communal fire pit where hot dogs, s’mores, lemonade, and live music were compliments of the campground.

Our last full day in the area was exactly that - full! We started off at Natural Bridge where we got to see an entire river flowing through a lava tube, literally disappearing for a hundred yards or so and then reappearing seemingly out of the side of the canyon.  We took a fairly sketchy forest service road to the trailhead for National Creek Falls (for what felt like a little too long until we finally saw another car on their way out and the driver assured us we were close).  The half mile hike was a little steep but totally worth it when we got to what might have been the prettiest water fall of the trip so far.  It was even better that we had it all to ourselves.  Palmer didn’t like that the spray was getting her wet and cold, but Haddie would have stayed in the mist all day if we let her.  We got pizza for lunch at a little shop on the shores of Diamond Lake and spent some time on the dock checking out the clear water before hopping in the car and driving to - you guessed it - another waterfall!   The last waterfall Julie wanted to see was going to be a 2.5 hour round trip from that spot, which was already an hour away from the campground, so we called an audible and went to the north entrance of the national park, which had just opened that day.  It proved to be a great decision since we got to see the lake from a bunch of perspectives that weren’t available when we were there two days earlier.  I can say it was just as awe inspiring the second time as it was the first.  We got finished just in time to grab a couple scoops of ice cream before the roadside shop closed on our way back to the trailer.