Nancy and I made a trip to Oregon many years ago and included Crater Lake as part of our itinerary.  It was a beautiful spot but the only downside was that there was a lot of fire activity in the state at that time and the view across the crater was a little obscured.  We could still see across but it was all a bit washed out.  I have been pondering a return ever since.

Since the road trip with Mark took us down to Klamath Falls, Crater Lake was only a short distance away.  One afternoon, after we had wrapped up the aviation photos for the day, we decided to make the trip to the mountain.  Not only did it make the possible plan to go there when heading to Medford the following day simpler it also meant it was a weekday and the visitor count might be a little lower.

There was no traffic on the road to the mountain which made it very relaxing.  It is a steady climb to get there with a steeper climb for the final section.  We got to the Rim Village area pretty easily and the conditions were fantastic.  The late afternoon light was really great and, while there were plenty of people around, it wasn’t crowded.  We also found that the rim road was open to the north entrance along the west rim but the east rim was still closed – presumably because the snow was still blocking things.  With the sun being in the west, this meant we had access to the best side.

There are plentiful pull offs along the rim road and we stopped at pretty much all of them.  Each one provided a slightly different perspective on the view and it is so beautiful, you don’t get tired of having different views all of the time.  (It is true that you can get a little blasé quite quickly about just how stunning it is, though.)