June 3, Crater Lake

We were hoping that we could find a tour to go to Crater Lake but they were incredibly expensive and the starting point was about 100 miles from us so we decided we would be our own tour guide. It was a round trip of about 285 miles but we saw some amazing stuff even though it rained on us for the last half of the day. We started out on Highway 138 which is nicknamed the Highway of Waterfalls. The first waterfall we saw was called Toketee Waterfall and it was beautiful.

A few more miles down the road we came to Clearwater Falls. Toketee Falls were spectacular but Clearwater Falls were beautiful and we didn't have to hike a mile to see them.

We then made our way up to Crater Lake which is the deepest lake in North America. There was about 8 feet of snow on the ground and you could only drive 1 mile along the rim because the rest of the roads were closed due to snow. It was also raining when we got there and I guess we were lucky to get this picture as it had been covered in fog for most of the day. The island in the middle of the picture is called Wizard Island.

On the way back from Crater Lake we accidentally found this which is the Rogue River Gorge. There is an amazing amount of water flowing through "lava tubes". The information on this said that you could fill an olympic size swimming pool in a minute from the amount of water that comes down these tubes. We also found a natural bridge which we thought would be a boulder with a big hole in the middle for the water to come through. Not so; it is actually underground and the water goes underground for about 25 feet and then magically appears again. Since there has been so much rain it was actually flowing over the bridge as well as under it but we could see the water coming out at the end of the bridge. It was a little crazy. We finally made it back to the trailer about 5 p.m. after a long but very cool day.

They are now forecasting more rain tomorrow but it should be slowing down tomorrow afternoon and they are predicting a sunny, warm day on Saturday - could our soggy trip be drying out!!!