Crater Lake

The deepest - and hence, the bluest - lake in the US, Crater Lake in Oregon has long been on my To-See list. The wish finally came true as we drove up to Crater Lake over the Labor Day weekend in September. It was a wonderful trip and I now feel that the lake should definitely be on the Must-See list for every nature-lover.

We stayed in the city of Medford, about an hour and a half south of Crater Lake. Day 1 was spent at the lake itself. As is usual for famous lakes (like Lake Tahoe), Crater Lake too has a rim drive that takes you around the lake. A number of lookouts afforded great views of the shimmering blue lake and some of these viewpoints gave us breathtaking views of the complete lake. Apart from the lake views, a couple of other highlights were The Pinnacles, spires of eroded ash and one of the sights unique to the lake, and Vidae Falls, a pretty waterfall very close to the road so we could clamber up the rocks to get really close to the water. The drive back to Medford runs along Rogue River for a long time and there were some picturesque views of the roaring river squeezing through some tight spots.

Since the lake itself was supposed to be for me, popular opinion was that Day 2 should be for the wife and kids. So we drove up to Roseburg to visit the Wildlife Safari. This was no African safari since the animals were restricted to the usual deer, ostrich, giraffe, etc. and the wild animals like cheetahs, bears, etc. were still behind fences. But the experience of seeing animals walking around freely and coming right upto the car windows was exciting for Kavya and Karthik and they were really thrilled. There is a small farm nearby and we also had our first elephant ride in the US there! From there we drove to a stop called Colliding Rivers - a place where 2 rivers, the Little River and the North Umpque river, meet head-on - on the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway . This was only the first highlight on the byway but that was all we had time for. Since it was the end of summer, it was more a gentle meeting than a collision of the 2 rivers, but it did provide a nice place for us to clamber on the rocks and wade in the water.

On Day 3, we visited the city of Jacksonville. There are only 8 cities designated as Historic Landmarks in the US and Jacksonville is one of them. It is one of those cute cities with historic buildings and unique shops. A bank from the 1870s was preserved and provided an interesting look at life more than a century ago. The drive back home was rather uneventful but the view of Mt. Shasta and a lake made it more interesting than the night-time drive up to the lake.

A few photos from the trip can be seen here.