Crater Lake

So, I feel like I've been a bad blogger this trip. There was just so much to see, so many hikes, driving, that by the time I got to my hotel room, I was just beat. Plus there was the annoyance that for a few days when I sent my emails to post, they'd come back the next day as delayed. So here I am, on the long flight to Atlanta catching up on my posts and arranging/cleaning up my photos.

I have to say one enjoyable thing about Oregon was that they have no sales tax. I have been planning for months to buy a new laptop when I got back from vacation. Figure out the tax savings on that major investment, plus the convenience of an Apple Store, and you'll understand why I'm typing this on my new laptop. I managed to add it, plus two bottles of wine to my baggage with no problem.

If you don't know, that gorgeous blue lake in the picture is Crater Lake. As blue as it may seem in the picture, it's bluer. It is amazing, huge, blue, clear, I could go on. I have two travel quests, one is a water sport in every state (I"m up to11) the other is the National Parks (I'm up to 4 stamps in my park passport). If you look closely at pictures of the lake, you'll see some white streaks across it, that's pine pollen. Apparently, I am highly allergic to it. I enjoyed my day, not so sure the people around me did. Since at first I thought I was catching a cold from rafting I decided to hike up to the highest point and not hike down to the lake. I felt the view from the top would be the more memorable. That's my excuse at least. I hear that the hike down is ok, but it's straight back up. That does not sound like fun, even to be able to say I did it. I rafted, I hike up to the lighthouse, I hiked to the highest point in Portland, I could let one hike slide. I also took the trolley ride around the lake. It was two hours long and a ranger talked the whole time. I love listening to the rangers talk about their parks. The history of the park, hearing how the crater was formed, talking about the water and the experiments being done on it, hearing the native american lore, it was perfect.

On my way to the lake I traveled through the Rogue Forest and stopped to see falls on the way. Also well worth it.

I then made my way up to Bend for the night.