Crater Lake was next on our list--we left Crescent City and drove into Oregon (which was very stressful gas-wise since there was NOTHING for so long). This was definitely the worst day of our trip. It was so dang hot. The heat wave was at its very worst and it was absolute misery to get outside the car for even a few steps. Plus, ironically enough, there was still enough snow on the hike we had planned to do that it was closed, and we were there two days before the boat tours switched to reservation and were still first come first served. I tried to get us on a boat tour but it just ended up being super frustrating and pointless (thanks to lack of cell service and no employees actually knowing where one bought tickets when the online system wasn't working yet, and the boat people were not answering their phones). Anyway.
The rim drive was partially closed thanks to ongoing construction, so we drove out to the farthest end of each of the west and east bound chunks to see what we could see. (And we spent a long time in the visitor's center which we were hoping would be air-conditioned but it was like a hot box and I think almost all of us fell asleep during the park film.)
We did the mini hike up to the Phantom Ship viewpoint and it was pretty cool.
And shady so we stayed there for awhile!
The blue of the lake is seriously unreal.
Still a decent amount of snow everywhere!
Here's a view of Wizard Island from another of the rim overlooks. One of the more interesting things we saw at Crater Lake was a guy in an RV towing a plane that was clearly homemade.
And here's the lobby of the lodge, which was really beautiful and has a pretty cool history.
Did we stay in the lodge? Nope, we stayed in a place that greeted us with this dude. It was...interesting. But the beds were very comfortable (after we requested new bedding from the desk clerk for one of the beds which did not smell like it had been washed after the previous occupant had some issues) and I tried really hard to not think about the hotel and just go to sleep. We had dinner at a very interesting place that featured all kinds of taxidermied animals (including a two-headed cow) but the food was actually pretty darn good and the portions were so huge that we couldn't finish, so overall a win? At some point I *might* go back to Crater Lake so that we can do a boat tour, hike around on Wizard Island, and swim off the cliffs at Cleetwood Cove, but for now I'm just glad that our worst day was only one day!
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