6-21-2011

I was on the road today by 7:30. My first stop was to fill up with gas. Let me tell you that this California girl was not expecting to have someone else pump my gas. The attendant did let me clean the bugs off my windshield.

My first stop was to take a short hike to the Mill Creek Falls overlook in Prospect. It was a short hike downhill and was totally worth it. I did get a little mixed up on the way back to the car because I took shortcuts and the trail goes in more than one direction. I finally mentally kicked myself and headed uphill.

A little while later I stopped at the Rogue River Gorge. The river is coming down a narrow lava shute and has enough volume of water coming through it to fill an Olympic swimming pool every minute.

It was still very early in the day so I headed to Crater Lake. It just happened to be a free admission day so I didn’t even have to pay the park entrance fee. My first stop was the gift shop. After dropping a bundle on odds and ends I started towards the Visitor Center. I climbed up on the snow (about 7 or 8 feet) and finally got my first look at the lake. It is totally breathtaking! The water had no movement so the reflection made it hard to tell where the shore met the water. As I was going the rest of the way to the Visitor Center a ranger walk was coming toward me. I had seen the flyer in the Gift Shop and knew this walk was limited to 25 people. I did a quick head count and decided to join them. On this walk we wore snowshoes because the trail is buried under snow. What a fun experience, but I have to tell you that I am not any more coordinated on snow than I am usually. At least I didn’t fall.

After more pictures I left the park around 2pm. I pulled into Diamond Lake about an hour later. This campground is beautiful and I don’t think there are any ugly sites. The major problem I am dealing with is mosquitoes. The bug spray was the first thing I unpacked. It is really strange but I have really good cell reception up here so I did a couple posts to Facebook. This post will have to wait until I have the internet on Thursday.

Susie