Down Low and Up High at Crater Lake

July 18, Crater Lake day 3

We began our day with a run.  We chose a trail near our campground, called Annie Creek Canyon.  Making the steep descent to the creek was not easy on my still-stiff legs.   

Apparently, sleeping on the ground for several nights doesn’t help recover my sore racing legs..or it could be that we were sleeping at over 7,000 ft.  Who knew?   Even though car camping is more luxurious (because I bring my bed pillows, books, and all our sleeping pads), it still isn’t ideal.

Anything you think I could add? PS- The tent isn’t big enough to hold an air mattress, so that option is out!

We cruised along the packed dirt trail, snapping photos of the lush creek bed, covered in every color flower one could imagine.  The stark contrast from our previous rocky hike on Wizard Island made us appreciate the color even more.  The canyon walls were a softer pumice stone and eroded into towering pillars. 

We climbed out of the canyon after just a couple of miles and began on the Pacific Crest Trail connector through the park.  After a few minutes of walking, hands on knees to propel us upward, we retreated.  No point in wrecking myself before 9am, right?  We returned the way we came, effectively covering the Annie Creek trail twice.  We saw one other person along the trail.  Hopefully everyone else is still in bed.  I hate to think that people forget about this trail, I think it is my favorite at Crater Lake!. About five miles in all.

After a quick shower and some lunch, Matt somehow convinced my fatigued corpse me to do one more hike.  I talked him into stopping for coffee at the lodge on the way there.  Sometimes coffee is the only thing keeping me from turning into a total monster when I’m tired.  COFFEE COFFEE COFFEEEEEEE!!

Each of our three days at the lake brought different weather and we got to experience many of Crater Lake’s moods.  The third day was my favorite.  As we stopped along the Garfield Peak trail to take a photo, another hiker remarked to me, “They say that each day during the summer, approximately 2 million photos are taken of this lake.  Each day! That’s insane.”  While we stared at the lake and all her grandeur, Matt gazed off to the distance.  “I love the clouds,” he said, “Looks like thunderstorms later!”  I could sense an air of excitement in his voice.  Thunderstorms are very rare at our house as we might get one or so a year, tops.

This trail was unlike the others we hiked in the fact that it offered us views to the south.  Jagged rocky peaks stood out from the great expanse of green trees.  Matt pulled out the map to identify them and figured we could see about 40 miles to the south, despite the rapidly lowering clouds.

I sipped my coffee as we climbed higher above the lake’s rim.  When I was out of breath, I conveniently stopped for a photo and took my time adjusting the camera’s settings.  Eventually we reached a sign announcing another trail closure.  We estimated that we were about 300 ft. from the top at turn-around.  Since it was already July and there was this much leftover snow, I wondered, Is there any time of year that all the trails and roads are open?  I’m assuming it snows early too, so maybe three days in September is all?

The rest of our day looked like this:

A stop at the Grants Pass Dairy Queen.

I wonder how many Dairy Queen photos are on this blog.  Anyone keeping count?

And then a cozy night snuggled up in the tent along foggy Lake Selmac.