Crater Lake, OR - Crescent City, CA (22)

Our two goals today, visit Crater Lake National Park , and return to the northern California coast via The Redwood National Forest.

Leaving Roseburg, we continued east on Oregon's Scenic Umpqua River Highway (Hwy 138).

The road follows the Umpqua River, ascending a long narrow canyon filled with some of the most scenic vistas anyone could imagine.

In places, trout fisherman line the banks of this beautiful river.

About a hundred miles later we arrived at Crater Lake National Park. This was one of Carolyn's destinations. Several years ago, she saw a documentary about the lake, and has wanted to visit ever since. Today, she realized that, and was not disappointed. It was everything she envisioned, and much more. An awe inspiring sight! Pictures do not even come close to it's beauty. You cannot believe how blue this water is.

We circled three quarters of the crater on The Rim Road. Scenic vew points can be found at many locations along the sheer cliffs overlooking the lake.

Crater Lake is six miles long and four and a half miles wide. It is the deepest lake in the US at 1,943 ft. It's 26 mile shoreline is encircled by lava cliffs that rise 500 to 2,000 ft. Elevations in the park range from 4,250 ft near the parks southern boundary to 8,929 ft at Mt. Scott. The highest elevation around the rim is at Cloud Point at 7,800 ft.

Crater lake receives an average of over 500 inches of snow each winter.

The park is surrounded by magnificent fir forests and snow topped mountains.

Volcanic outcroppings of pumice can be seen in orange. You are never far from the fact that this is the top of a volcano.

It is impossible to take a bad picture at Crater Lake.

The island is called the Phantom Ship because it resembles a ship at first glance. The island has been dated at over 400,000 years old.

The temperatures today ranged from a low of 66f at Crater Lake to a high of 100f at Grants Pass.

After leaving the park, we had lunch at Grants Pass, Oregon. From there we followed Hwy 99 southwest, through The Redwood National Forest to Crescent City, California, where we are staying tonight. The temperature at Crescent City was 66f degrees with light fog. Quiet a change from the 100f at Grants Pass.

These Redwoods are simply enormous in size and height.

Tomorrow we continue down the California coast where we plan to visit several Redwood Forests. The goal is to finish just north of San Francisco where we will turn east.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. ~Walt Disney~