Crater Lake

We have lived in Southern Oregon for just over a year now and for the entire last year we've had plans to visit Crater Lake National Park, which we are lucky enough to live just a couple hours away from. Crater Lake is a lake formed at the top of a volcanic caldera. On the way up we made a few stops at some other geological sights formed by the volcano eruption 7,000 years ago.

Mill Creek Falls

A lava cave near the natural lava rock bridge on the river. The lava once flowed here carving out caves and natural bridges, blowholes and uniquely sculpted rocks. Now the water from the river flows here underneath a large "bridge" made of lava, which is really like a big long hollowed out tube of lava rock. It was really neat to imagine the water was lava to see how it all happened.

A gorge carved out once by flowing lava.

The gorge was beautiful.

Hayden has been really interested in geology and geography for a while now, and since moving to Oregon, he has tried to learn everything he can about volcanoes. This made for a fun little trip, as he's been DYING to get to go visit one of the volcanoes since we've moved here. While at Crater Lake he did his Junior Ranger's packet.  Most National Parks have a Junior Ranger's program which is really great for kids. They have a booklet for the kids with activities and different ways for them to learn all about the park. If they finish a certain amount of it they get a sticker and then a badge).  We were lucky enough to be there at a good time for him to take a Junior Ranger's learning "class" where he learned from a hands on activity all about how a one-man submarine was airlifted in to Crater Lake so they could find out just how deep it really was, do tests, take pictures, and learn more about it.

Hayden finding things that may or may not be found in the lake, learning whether or not they belong there, and if they are organic or inorganic.

Hayden found a snake! - The other item he picked up with his robot submarine claws was a set of car keys. She told us last summer a car was left in park, but their break was not put on. After they got their kids out of the car and shut the doors, the dog which was left in the car started jumping around and knocked the car in to neutral and the car rolled over the very steep edge, 1,000 feet down. They had to lift the car out with a helicopter, which was more like a rolled up ball of metal and hardly looked like a car at all! After she told this story I started to wonder if I had put my break on, as that is something I keep forgetting the last few weeks!

Here is a picture of the car I found online! WOW!

Here is Hayden receiving his Junior Ranger's badge! After this he officially got sworn in as an Official Junior Park Ranger of Crater Lake National Natl. Park! It's really cute how they make such a big deal of it at every park to keep the kids interested.

Okay- more about the lake!  The water in Crater Lake is supplied purely by large amounts of snowfall and rainwater and that's it. Apparently it is extremely rare for a volcano to erupt and leave a perfect crater with no low point for water to escape. The color of the water is the most beautiful shade of blue. We went in the bright sunny afternoon when the color is mostly washed out from the brightness. On top of that we've had lots of wildfires in the area, so there was a little bit of haze lingering, but even with all that, it was so incredibly beautiful, I couldn't stop looking down at the color of the water.