We arrived just after lunch to Crater Lake National Park. There were lines at a few gift shops but the official visitor center had no visitors except us. The rangers were super friendly and pointed out some good hikes for us to do with the kids as well as gave us the Jr Ranger books and the passport stamp for our book. Every park seems to be doing things a little different during Covid. Some parks insist on stamping our passport book themselves, others have it out in the open. Some visitor centers are entirely closed and the rangers are standing outside at a table (as was the case here at Crater Lake), while others just open all the doors and let fresh air in. Some parks will give the parents the Jr Ranger badges along with the booklet so when the kiddo finishes the book, the parent can swear them in, others require you mail the booklet in or come back to the visitor center to receive the badge. Since we’ve been to a couple parks that gave us the badges up front, James thought he’d try his luck and let the Ranger know she should just give us the badges now since we only had a day. LOL. She was not buying it. She informed him he could mail in his booklet when he was done. And so it shall be.
The view at the visitor center is very popular, and for good reason. The lake is stunning. It really is that blue. And still. Not a single ripple. There is a nice paved boardwalk style trail around the rim in front of the visitor center and several other buildings. I started having a bit of an anxiety attack due to all the people around me. Apparently I’m not quite ready to fully re-enter post-Covid society. We decided to get out of there and find a less populated area of the park. We drove up to Watchman’s Overlook which was also the trailhead for Rim trail. The view on this side of the crater was just as spectacular and gave us a better view of Wizard island. Climbing up the rim gave us some exercise and fun snow play.
After a couple pictures we headed back down the crater to the headquarters. There are two trails here both labeled “Easy.” One was described as being “slippery” even during summer, so we skipped that one and hiked “The Lady of the Woods” which was named after a carved lady in a boulder. Joke was on us. The one we chose instead still had huge patches of snow. We lost the trail a couple times and had to take our best guess at where it continued. The most nerve-wracking part was crossing a bridge with 1ft of packed snow on top, with a running stream below. I may have pushed Ben in front of me. Just in case. The kids had to stop at every patch of snow to play in it and make snowballs. Needless to say, it was an adventurous 0.7mile hike that I don’t think we’ll be forgetting anytime soon.
The area around Crater Lake is really neat and open for campers. We were able to boondock in a Sno-Park parking lot with a few other boondockers for free within 20 minutes of the south entrance station. There were even pit toilets available for use (but BYOTP). The Sno-Park was along a main road, and there was some road noise, but after 10pm or so it was quiet. There were signs throughout the mountain still up saying to be prepared with snow chains. Every campground we saw was along either a river or lake. The views among these mountains really can’t be beat and made for a beautiful driving day as well.
Be the first to reply