Crater Lake - Grew, Blew, Fell, Filled

Hi Blog! Thursday, September 12th was our first full day in the Crater Lake area.  We decided a trip to the park visitor center was in order.  We learned from other campers that the boat rides and ranger programs will be ending shortly.  Everything is closing early because of budget cuts.  One thing we really wanted to do was take a ranger led boat ride out to Wizard Island and hike up to the top of the volcano.  You can see down into the cone.  Here is the view from the rim looking down on Wizard Island.

Here is the view in the other direction.  Because the lake is so clean and clear, other colors of the spectrum are absorbed.  Only the blue wavelengths can be seen.  The color ranges from light blue to a deep violet, almost purple in some areas.

However, just along the edge, where the water is not so deep, you can see just a little bit of light green.

Here is the park headquarters.  We stopped at the Steel Visitor Center to watch a video overview of the park.  We learned that Mount Mazama formed over 400,000 years ago and GREW to be 12,000 feet.  About 7,700 years ago it BLEW it's top.  After pumping out tons and tons of pumice, ash, lava and gas, the top just FELL creating a crater 6.02 miles across.  This basin was FILLED with rain and snowfall.

Having secured our boat tickets for tomorrow and getting all kinds of maps and ideas for hikes, we returned to Diamond Lake.  We jumped on our bikes and rode down to the Diamond Lake Resort, where we inquired about renting kayaks and/or a fishing boat.  Here is the view along the bike path.

So, we'll be getting up really early tomorrow to make sure we get to the boat dock on time for our boat tour of Crater Lake and our hike on Wizard Island.  Chat at you later.