We decided to take advantage of being so close to Crater Lake National Park by visiting the park and also hiking to Watson Falls. We took the winding North Bank Road northeast to Hwy 138. One interesting sight we saw the other day on that route was a warning sign to watch for low-flying aircraft—but there are no airports around. Instead we saw a small plane parked in a driveway. What??? Today we saw the grass strip that the pilot must use to take off and land right behind the house.
When we got to Hwy 138, we were searching for a restroom and noticed a ranger station. We stopped, and while we were there talked with a very nice ranger who said that he thought they might be opening the north entrance to Crater Lake NP today. The word he got was that they were hoping to have it open by noon.
We decided to stop at the falls on our way out to the park (to give them more time to get the entrance open). Just before Watson Falls is the turnoff for Toketee Falls, and we decided to stop there first. Toketee is a two tiered falls. The trail to the observation deck goes up 97 steps winding along the white water river. The sight of the falls is breathtaking--the kind of sight that impels the viewer to say "Wow!" The falls plunge down framed by columnar basalt flows--a majestic sight.
When we drove out to the highway to continue on our way, we found ourselves delayed by road work including a series of one way segments with flaggers. Finally we made it to the Watson Falls cutoff. Shortly after turning we saw a sign indicating "Watson Falls Picnic Area" so we continued, expecting to find another sign indicating the trailhead. Wrong. We ended up having to make a U-turn on a narrow, winding roadway.
From the parking lot, the top of the falls can be seen above the trees. Along the trail to the falls are three vantage points for viewing. First a wooden bridge about .3 miles up the trail provides a spectacular view. The closest view is nearly at the base of the falls and definitely in the spray. Walking back down the trail, we commented on the number of huge trees and waving ferns and the amount of moss we've seen in the last couple of days in Oregon. The ranger we spoke with the morning said, "It's hard to keep things from growing in southwest Oregon."
Finally we got close to the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park. We passes signs saying that the road was closed, but we relied on the information we'd gotten from the ranger this morning. Success! The north entrance was open. When we stopped at the gate to show our senior access pass, the person there commented that we were lucky, the road had just been opened today. We were lucky--this route is more than 30 miles shorter, and it provides some spectacular views of the lake and the surrounding area.
Driving in the north entrance road, we found ourselves in the Pumice Desert, created by ash flow from a major eruption of Mt. Mazama, the volcano that collapsed on itself to create Crater Lake.
Then we were surrounded by snow--huge banks of snow along the road, white blankets of snow across the landscape, white frosting on the trees. We felt like we had been transported to another world.
Then we saw pullouts from which to view the lake, and we stopped at a few. It was later in the day, and the sky was mostly cloudy, so we didn't see the amazing blue that many people describe, but the lake was still a beautiful sight, contained in the caldera as if in a giant bowl. We drove on to the Rim Village, where we stopped, thinking that the Steel Visitor Center was located there. It turned out that although there is a very small visitor center at the Village (Rim Visitor Center), the main center is located farther south, on the south entrance road. We got there in time to watch the videos. The first short one shows the enormous job facing the crews that clear the snow from the roads each spring. It's a massive undertaking, difficult and even dangerous, as the heavy equipment must navigate in a snow whiteout landscape, clearing roads that have sheer drop offs, sometimes on both sides. A copper cable is buried beneath the road to keep the crews on track (though we didn't see any explanation of how the crews locate the copper cable).
The second, longer video is about the human history of Crater Lake. It describes the relationship of the Native Americans to the volcano and the lake. It also tells the story of William Steel, the man who was so impressed by the lake that he devoted seventeen years of his life to insuring its protection from commercialization and exploitation (like "peanut stands and other signs of desolation"). His persistence finally paid off in 1902, when Crater Lake National Park was created by congress (influenced by Teddy Roosevelt's intervention).
On the way home we looked for someplace to eat supper, but found nothing until we got to Roseburg. Ken found a little Chinese restaurant with good recommendations on Yelp. Lee’s Restaurant doesn’t look like much, but it did have friendly quick service, good food, and reasonable prices, just as the Yelpers had said.
Today was a long day, but satisfying. Tomorrow we plan to stick close to home and rest a bit. Neither one of us has been feeling 100% recently.
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