I planned this trip a month ahead and when I tried to book the Crater Lake Lodge, it was already fully booked for the month of August and September. There were a few availability in October but it wouldn't work for us as the kids will be back to school. Summer time is the most ideal time to visit Crater Lake as you can ride the boat around the lake and get on Wizard Island.
After this trip, I highly recommend that you book Crater Lake Lodge if you plan to visit Crater Lake as you get to enjoy the nice lake view from your room and also get to watch sunrise and sunset. We didn't get to do any of these as we had to drive a little over 1 hour from our hotel to the lake and since it was not easy to drive around some parts of the lake, we decide to leave early before it gets dark. I also heard that the lodge restaurant serves very tasty breakfast, especially walnut pancake.
For my next trip to Crater Lake, I definitely will stay at Crater Lake Lodge, get on the boat ride and also ride the shuttle around the park. To get to the boat ride, you will have to hike about 1.1 miles to get to the boat which would take about 30-45 minutes to descend 700 foot and about 1 hour to walk up. There are 2 different kind of boat tours:
1. The lake tour
2. The lake tour + Wizard Island tour
If you take the lake tour only, you will remain in the boat the entire time. If you take the Wizard Island tour, they will drop you off for 3 hours at Wizard Island so that you can explore the island and hike to the highest point there. You can also swim in the lake although it would be extremely cold.
A little history on Crater Lake:
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in U.S. and the only National Park in Oregon. It was formed 7700 year ago by the collapse of Mount Mazama volcano. There are no rivers flowing into and out of the lake and the water inside the lake is collected by the snow and rain. It is a dormant volcano, not extinct meaning that it could erupt. There are 2 islands inside Crater Lake: Wizard Island and Phantom Ship. Wizard Island is the larger island while Phantom Ship is the smaller island. There are several lookouts to have a closer view of the islands.
The circumference of the lake is ~33 miles and it will take a couple of hours to go around the lake by car. Some areas of the road are a little scary as it is high in elevation and there are no railings on the side.
After breakfast at our hotel in Klamath Falls, we headed to Crater Lake. The drive was a little over an hour, and on the way there, we stopped by a vista point.
My little Maddie with her different poses for the pictures. I wonder where she learnt all her poses as I don't think I do that?
After the vista point, we arrived at the entrance. After paying the park fee of $15, we went to the Steel Visitor Center to find out where to go. The park ranger suggested that we drive along the East Rim drive. We also got the booklet for the kids so that they can fill out the activities in the book and get a Junior Park Ranger pin.
Afterwards, we went to one of the lookouts to view Wizard island (larger one on the right) and Phantom ship (smaller one on the left). See picture below.
We stopped by the vista point near Mount Scott to take some pictures before heading to the Rim village for lunch. There is a hike up Mount Scott and it is one of the most difficult hike in Crater Lake, so of course we skipped this hike.
One thing that I want to say about Crater Lake is that the signs are mostly on 1 side of the road, so we missed a few lookouts during our East Rim drive as we didn't see the signs since they were on the other side of the road. On the return way to the rim village, we saw the signs and were able to stop by the lookouts that we missed earlier.
We stopped by the Phantom Ship Overlook to have a close view of the island.
After this lookout, we proceed to The Pinnacles.
The girls still working on their booklet.
The wind was pretty strong here and it blew the particles into our eyes, so we had to leave soon after to our next stop, which is the Vidae Falls. You can view Vidae Falls from the road as it is right next to the road, there is no hiking needed to view the waterfalls although there were people who hike up the top.
Then we drove to the Rim village to have lunch. After we parked, we passed by the Rim Village visitor center. They were just starting an activity with the kids to create a postcard. The kids wanted to do that before we eat, so we spent another 20 minutes there so that they can create their Crater Lake postcard and get their junior ranger badge.
After they got their badge, we went inside to get the pin as the kids have also finished their booklet. The park ranger asked them some questions about their booklet before telling them that they ran out of pins but they will ship to us once they receive it.
After this, we finally was able to get our lunch at the cafe. After lunch, we spent some time at the shop for souvenirs before walking towards the Sinnott Memorial overlook right by the visitor center. On the way there, we again were mesmerized by the beauty of the lake.
We even saw a squirrel there.
After taking many pictures along the way, we finally reached the Sinnott Memorial Overlook.
From the pictures above, you can see how clear the water is.
We stayed there for a while to enjoy the beautiful views. Then, we were thinking about circling the lake, we decided to go the West Rim drive this time since we covered part of the East Rim drive earlier. However, the West Rim drive entrance from the Rim village was closed, so we couldn't enter from there. We were debating whether that we should go to the East Rim drive again but decided against it as the guys were tired and some parts of the East Rim drive was dangerous to drive.
So, we decided to go check out Mazama Village. There wasn't much at the Mazama Village although they did have a restaurant, so after that, we decided to head back to the hotel as we promised the kids that they could swim in the pool today.
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