Crater Lake – Sportsman’s River Retreat

The first stop on our rerouted travel plans was a campground called Sportsman’s River Retreat near Chiloquin.

One of the worst places that we have stayed, but the owner was extremely nice. He told us that the place should be under new ownership later in the week. I hope so, the property had great potential as it sat on the Sprague River which led directly to the Upper Klamath Lake.

As you can see it needs a lot of TLC.

The next day we decided to brave the dense smoke and head up to Crater Lake National Park.

I’m so glad that we did! Here’s the map:

Mount Mazama was one of the mountains in the Cascades that is believed to have been about 12,000 feet tall. About 7,700 years ago it erupted and spewed pumice, ash and released magma. Once the magma chamber emptied the mountain could no longer support its own weight and collapsed creating the caldera. Over the next few centuries rain water and snowed filled the caldera and created Crater Lake. As the water filled another cinder cone developed in the lake called Wizard Island.

Here are some fun facts: cleanest water in the world, deepest lake (1943 ft) in North America, 6 x 4.5 miles across, holds 4.9 trillion gallons of water, and since the water is so clear you can see down 143 feet.

We entered from the south and stopped along the way to see some overlooks and Annie Falls way down in the valley.

We noticed the snow markers along the road that the snowplows use to keep the roads clear during the winter months.

We learned that they get an average of 533 inches of snow annually. That’s over 44 feet!

I saw a black Bear up ahead in the road but it was out of sight when we got there. Maybe is was a Sasquatch. We went to the Rim Village. In the Village sits the Crater Lake Lodge that looked beautiful from the outside, we could not go inside as we weren’t patrons – gosh darn COVID! We decided to take the Rim Drive and go all the way around the lake. Since it was smoky our pictures didn’t show the beauty of the reflections of the rim on the still clear water. We will take you along through pictures and explanation:

First stop – Sinnott Overlook:

There was a relief map created that shows the aerial of the current landscape:

Look at the color of the water near the coast:

Absolutely stunning!

Second stop – Watchman Overlook:

We climbed up to the Watchman Peak with Bear. Great views:

Bear is so photogenic!

On the trip back down we saw a C-130 circling the lake, like five times:

We thought that they were either on a training mission or something to do with the wild fires.

Third stop – Cleetwood Cove:

Katrina and I climbed down to the lake’s edge. One mile down and it felt like three miles up!

It was worth it! Check out the water:

It is so clear! It looked so enticing:

It was great to put our feet in the cold water! It was so clear that it’s hard to see where the water hits my feet.

Here I am at Crater Lake:

Fourth stop – Cloudcap Overlook:

The sign talks about the strong winds during the winter month that cause the trees to bend away from it. They are called “flag trees”.

Fifth stop – Pumice Castle Overlook:

The reddish “castle” reminded us of Bryce Canyon.

Sixth stop – Phantom Ship Overlook:

Doesn’t it look like a ghost ship?

Seventh and final stop – Vidae Falls:

Although not stunning, still pretty!

Crater Lake was beautiful and should be on people’s bucket list. If you can be there when the skies were clear with no smoke it would be spectacular!

We stopped at the Mazama Village for some drinks and gas. Then headed home for a wonderful meal that Katrina prepared. Then we relaxed to get ready to head farther south and into more smoke and hopefully no wild fires.