Crater Lake National Park

Before heading out to water aerobics I packed a picnic lunch for us, knowing that there would be a beautiful spot to have lunch while at Crater Lake. Upon arrival, we discovered lots of lovely places we could stop and we'll keep them in mind for our next visit but this time we chose to sit on the wall the Visitor's Center at the Rim Village while lake and people-watching. Young, old and the ubiquitous dog people, all enjoying a gorgeous day.

For the nitty-gritty details of the park, the link http://www.crater.lake.national-park.com/
will give you tons of information. We followed the Rim Road around the lake, stopping to read the interpretive signs and getting pictures of the lake from different sides of the lake. We've seen the blue waters of the Pacific around Hawai'i, the aqua waters around the Keys, the green waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but the shade of blue of Crater Lake is just out of this world. The various geological features of the park, like the Pumice Desert, Pumice Castle, Wizard Island and even the Old Man of the Lake, a free-floating tree that's been bobbing about in the lake for years all made for an interesting learning experience.

Before leaving we stopped at the boat ride concession and found that you could ride around the lake for $23.50 per person and even have the opportunity to get off at Wizard Island to explore and eat lunch or whatever and then catch another boat later. We'll do that the next time. We started our loop going west to east and therefore found the boat concession at the end of our day instead of the beginning. A note to those afraid of heights; if you're going to drive Rim Road entering from the north, take the east to west route so you will be on the inside traffic lane. Driving on the outside lane puts you very near the edge of the mountain side in many places and there are few guard rails along the route.

As we were heading towards the area where we entered the park a Minnie Winnie (a small RV) pulled out in front of us, sporting a bumper sticker that read "I heart-symbol" today" (I love today). Denny and I agreed that that was a great motto to live by. After spending a glorious day outdoors we heart-symbol today indeed.