Klamath County
Crater Lake National Park - Early Fall
Crater Lake National Park is located in the south central part of Oregon. The lake at it's center is all that is left of an ancient volcano known as Mount Mazama. (Mazama means mountain goat in the Nahuatl language. It was adopted as the name of a mountaineering club headquartered in Portland, Oregon, in the last years of the nineteenth century. In 1896, they visited Crater Lake and christened the old volcano with the name of their club.) Mazama is part of the 400,000 year old Cascade Range of Mountains and the caldera rim circling the lake ranges in elevation of from seven to eight thousand feet with the highest point topping out at 8,929 feet. Scientists tell us that Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago and the lake that formed in the old caldera at almost 2,000 feet in depth is the deepest lake in the country and the ninth deepest in the world. Another interesting fact is that, unlike most lakes, there are no streams in or out of Crater Lake. All of the water in the lake comes via snow and rain and leaves via evaporation and underground seepage.
Native American oral history and legends recount variations of the eruption of Mount Mazama which usually pit the God of the Underworld in battle with the God of the Upper World. The eruption of the volcano is, of course, part of the struggle and marks the destruction of the Underworld God's home. The first Anglo-Europeans to visit the lake were prospecting for gold in 1853. John Wesley Hillman, Henry Klippel, and Isaac Skeeters were impressed by the beauty of the lake, but didn't find any gold there so they moved on after naming it Deep Blue Lake. William Gladstone Steel came along in 1885, fell in love with the place, and devoted his life to protecting it. (He was a very active member of the Mazama Mountaineering Club and hosted the gathering during which the volcano was named in 1896.) In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation making it the sixth facility in the fledgling United States National Park system. A lodge was opened in 1915 and the Rim Drive was completed in 1918. (Steele later became park superintendent and was criticized and removed for wanting to overdevelop the park.) Today, the park is open year round, but snow limits accessibility to most of the park beyond the lodge during the period between October and June. Most visitation takes place between July and October. It is regarded to be one of the snowiest places in the northwest with more than forty feet of snowfall common. Roads are not open for much of the year and even when they are they can be icy and dangerous.
Crater Lake is the only national park located in Oregon and it is a jewel. The lodge is classic and well worth a stay (if you can get a room), but there are several places nearby where you can stay if there is no availability. The drive around the lake is absolutely beautiful and there are a number of hikes available ranging from short to long. (In fact, it is possbile to connect to a trail system that extends from Mexico to Canada).
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