Be sure to read Part 1 for a trip overview.Travel Dates: 4/22/11

Tall, tall, tall trees.

Where the heck are there pedestrians?

Entering Smith River National Recreation Area

Bright blue water

Stunning

Amazing clarity

Ian, the dog, and I each took a drink of the water. It was wonderfully refreshing with a little bit of sweetness to it.

Fast Tube by Casper

Back up the hill to the car.

One lane. Line of cars waiting.

There’s a button for cyclists to press that causes a “CYCLISTS IN TUNNEL” sign to flash.

Welcome to Oregon!

This area was pretty rednecky. I think this town calls itself Cave Junction.

Stopped at Wild River Pizza, which was quite good. This chill guy was hanging out in the back of a NISMO Nissan Frontier.

Starting to see civilization.

The gas pump at the Albertsons in Grants Pass was a mess. In Oregon, you can’t fill your own tank. You have to wait for an attendant to walk over, take your card, and stick the nozzle in your filler. There are always more customers than attendants, which leads to long waits and lines. Some have tried to justify the law saying its safer, but if you tell the attendant to top off your tank, they start the pump and walk away! If there was spillage for any reason, it would take longer for me to get out of my car and disable the pump than if I had just been standing there from the beginning.

Its stupid. Plain stupid.

“Why lie? It’s for beer.”

Heading to Crater Lake

Gold Hill OR

110 miles from Grants Pass to Crater Lake

Starting to see snow

Tried to take a scenic detour. Bad idea. Reversed back to the main road.

More snow

Much more snow

Much much more snow

That’s a lot of snow.

Got to the visitor center just seconds before it closed

The whole building was buried in snow.

How Crater Lake was formed. Mount Mazama blew up and left a hole with water in it.

3D model

Exiting the visitor center

He’s trying to burrow himself into the snow, or something

SO BEAUTIFUL. Its dead silent. There’s some deer and a few birds but that’s it. The water is so still at this time of year that it creates a mirror-like reflection. Even the clouds in the sky are rendered perfectly.

Fast Tube by Casper

The water has no external sources, making it the cleanest body of natural water in North America.

“Due to several unique factors, most prominently that it has no inlets or tributaries, the waters of Crater Lake are some of the purest in terms of the absence of pollutants in North America.

Secchi disk clarity readings have consistently been in the high-20 meter to mid-30 meter (80–115 ft) range, which is very clear for any natural body of water. In 1997, scientists recorded a record clarity of 43.3 meters (142 ft).”

There’s a rope to discourage people from being stupid and slipping down the hill.

Wizard Island – “Lava eruptions later created a central platform, Wizard Island, Merriam Cone, and other, smaller volcanic features, including a rhyodacite dome that was eventually created atop the central platform. Sediments and landslide debris also covered the caldera floor.[12]”

That roof sticking up is the third floor of the building.

Tree tops!

People have gone up on the roof anyway.

Oh hi.

A little viewpoint away from the people.

I replied “Thx bro”

I wrote a plug for the blog.

Breathtaking.

At this time of year, the ring road around the lake is closed due to snow. They said it typically reopens late in the summer.

Headed back to I-5, to Corvallis OR

PART 9: Crater Lake OR to Corvallis OR