Crater Lake National Park

When we arrived at the hotel we’d be staying at while exploring Crater Lake, we were pleasantly surprised to see how new it was. It was so clean, fresh, functional, etc. Plus it had a pool with a hot tub. Henry had been asking for that our whole trip, and he finally got his wish! We were there for three nights, so he had plenty of pool time.

The park itself is quite simple. It’s a giant crater (5 miles wide and almost 2,000 feet deep!). It was a volcano that erupted 7,700 yearns ago, blowing the top off the mountain which collapsed into the crater. Then it filled with rain and melted snow to create the lake. It’s known for being the deepest lake on the US, with the most clarity. The depth and clarity give it a brilliant blue color. Some call it the "Crown Jewel of the Cascades" because of this.

One of the main things to do at the park is drive the rim around to enjoy lake views from every angle. We did that as much as we could. They get 44 feet of snowfall every winter, so parts of the park were still closed due to being snow covered.

There is also only one trail that brings you down to the water. It’s only two miles total, but the climb back up is pretty steep and required a few breaks. How cool to be able to stick our feet in that water though! And we watched a few brave cliff jumpers too!

One picnic lunch there we were entertained by the cutest chipmunk that was waiting for us to give him some food. (Which we didn’t do!) Both kids participated in the Junior Ranger program one more time. Each time they’ve had the nicest rangers work with them!

Thus ended our last stop on our road trip. After that was two solid days of travel to get back home. It’s pretty incredible that we all handle the 15 hours in the car each day as well as we do. We really do minimal stops. Just fueling up with gas and taking bathroom breaks at the same time… even eating our meals in the car while driving!

Mostly we listened to audio books. Some good ones we listened to over the trip were Hatchet and A Night Divided. Henry played legos and Olivia colored. It’s not much different from what a mellow day at home might look like for the kids.
It was definitely a memorable trip. While we may not do two weeks of travel again in the near future, I'm glad we executed this trip the way we did. There was so much to see in the area, we sure got a lot of it in!