The bad news is that it's cold, rainy, and we had to take shelter in a lodge near our campsite instead of hiking as planned. But there's an upside! This lodge has a big fire pit, cocoa, and wifi, and we're behind on blog posts anyway.
So back to the volcanoes.
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| Lava Butte at the Newberry Volcanic Monument |
When we left Bend on Thursday in our sweet little Yaris rental car, we were headed straight for Crater Lake. We decided to detour into the Newberry Volcanic Monument when we saw huge lava fields off the highway. We found ourselves walking the Trail of Molten Land which, to us east coast natives, felt otherworldly and bizarre.
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| "Lavacicles" are formed when lava begins to harden in tubes and some drips from the top of the tube |
We got to Crater Lake in the early afternoon, and as we ascended toward the lake, the snow on either side of the road seemed impossibly high. Crater Lake was formed 7,700 years ago when Mount Mazama, which if still standing would likely be the highest peak in Oregon, erupted so violently that the magma chamber beneath it nearly emptied. Without the support of a full magma chamber beneath the mountain collapsed into itself. Over time the crater filled with rain and snow, making Crater Lake one of the purest, clearest bodies of water in the world.
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| A clear(ish) day at Crater Lake! |
The lake gets a lot of snow each winter, so there's only a 50% that visitors on any given day will be able to see the lake at all. Despite the fog slowly lowering into the crater, we were lucky enough to get a great view of the lake on our first afternoon including Wizard Island.
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| Driving up through a veritable snow tunnel |
We spent that night at the Union Creek Resort, and it being our honeymoon, they gave us a great deal on cross-country ski rentals for the next day.
On Friday morning we got an early start out to Crater Lake with the intention of skiing along Rim Road, which is closed to cars all winter, for as long as we could. We knew that the visibility would be poor, we didn't have views of the lake at all, but we didn't expect the near white-out conditions we got only 3 miles after setting out. We turned back a bit earlier than planned, but didn't feel like we missed out on any adventure. Skiing along the silent landscape with the lake to our sides and the trees towering around us was one of the most amazing times we have had on our trip so far.
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