So I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to split this into a Part 3 and 4 or keep it together as one. And I decided to keep Crater Lake and Samuel H Boardman as one blog post. I think it’ll help with the flow of things and I’ll try not to make it too long. It’s tough because the first half was somewhat uneventful but then the day becomes very exciting!
Here we are, Klamath Falls, Oregon. A small town with not a whole lot going on but it appears to be in the process of going through a big growth phase. I say that because a lot of the chain stores and restaurants looked brand new - so obviously the town is doing well enough to acquire some of the chains.
We didn’t hike anywhere here, mostly just a pitstop in our journey, and honestly we really needed it with whatever bug bit me and then Tristans hurt knee. We found a sweet KOA and set up our tents there, drank some whiskey, sat by the fire, made s'mores and chilled out for the evening. Also, I asked the kid working the KOA about some of those restaurants and he confirmed they were about 6 months old.
So yeah. I’m pretty observant. (ha)
The next morning we stopped at a MedExpress for myself and Tristan which took FOREVER. I felt bad for taking up so much valuable time but it needed to be done. I just needed some real medication to alleviate these nasty hives for the remainder of the trip and that’s what they did for me (thank God)
So back to what you came for. After a night of drinks, and a trip to MedExpress we made our way to Crater Lake! A tad over an hour drive there but a pretty one for sure, and very easy. We stopped on our way there to take pictures at an overlook and stretch our legs a bit, it was pretty as you can see below. We ran into an older couple traveling by RV that also stopped to take pictures there and we talked to them for a bit. They were retired and traveling the country together and we all thought that was pretty cool.
Back on the road, we arrive at Crater Lake and it’s pure, crystal blue waters! It is pretty amazing to look at. We got lucky and had a beautiful sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky.
The history behind the lake is pretty wild too, it wasn’t formed by a meteor or anything, but actually a volcano eruption (Mount Mazama) and the eruption caused the Volcano to collapse on itself. It continued to have smaller eruptions and formed a little peak in the middle of the lake which they call Wizard Island. The lake doesn’t have any water that flows into it, but miraculously has a near perfect balance of evaporation and precipitation to maintain its water level.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to hike or do anything at Crater Lake because everything was closed due to snowpack. We made sure to get our times worth there but it would’ve been nice to hike some of the trails around the lake itself.
That was about it for Crater Lake, extremely beautiful and worth the trip; I’ll go back again one day later in the summer where I can actually hike the area.
A little over 4 hours later, we made it to our destination in a campground somewhere between Brookings and Samuel H. Boardmen. We were running out of daylight and also pushing our luck finding an open space to camp out. Remember in the first blog post when I said we had to change plans and do everything on the fly? Yeah. Still true here. Once again we got lucky and found a sweet spot to set up our tents. Nothing special, but a cheap spot.
We threw our tents together, grabbed our cameras and headed to the Natural Bridges overlook.
Whoah.
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