We slept in a little later than usual this morning…8AM haha…probably because of all the partying we did yesterday! We had a nice breakfast with my family before we got back on the road, which is just what we needed to wake up and get going!
It was only about a 4-hour drive to Crater Lake from my uncle’s house, but I was really tired this morning…so it almost felt like a longer drive to me!
We took the scenic route towards Crater Lake and stopped at Colliding River in Glide, OR, where the Little River and North Umpqua River join in a head-on collision!
As we got closer to Crater Lake, we drove by Diamond Lake. It’s bright blue water fills part of a glacial basin, and has beautiful volcanic mountains on each side (one of which is considered the lightning rod of the Cascades!
We finally arrived at Crater Lake National Park at around 3PM. When we reached the first outlook at the East Rim Road and West Rim Road Junction…we were completely blown away! The water was so blue and the snow capped mountains surrounding the lake made it breathtakingly beautiful!
We continued driving on the West Rim Road and stopped at the Watchman Outlook, which gave us the closest view of Wizard Island. Wizard Island is actually a smaller volcanic mound within the larger volcanic crater (if you look close you can see the smaller crater of Wizard Island!).
We arrived at Mazama campsite and picked out the shadiest campsite with perfect hammock trees. We were able to make a general reservation and choose a specific site once we arrived!
As I was unloading the car and Joey was setting up the tent, we left a side door open. Joey opened the passenger door and as he reached for the center console, a little chipmunk popped up! It must’ve gotten into the car while we weren’t looking, and within the minute or two that it was in there, it had gotten into our trail mix bag (which we sadly had to throw out.). Joey got him out of the car, and made sure there were no other friends left behind!
We’ve just been relaxing at our campsite since we arrived and we can’t wait to head to Redwoods National Park tomorrow and see these magnificent giants…so stay posted!