Crater Lake Ski and Snowshoe: What a Lot of Snow Looks Like

Growing up in northern Michigan, I'm no stranger to snow. Snow often began to fall mid-October. If we were lucky, it didn't start to accumulate for good until a few weeks later, but that was not always the case. All my childhood Halloween costumes fit over snow pants and winter jackets. For this reason, I often took the easy way out and dressed as a hunter even though I have never personally fired a gun.

Snow hung around until well after the official start of spring on March 20th. If I was really lucky, my Easter dress was paired with equally cute matching shoes rather than winter boots, but more often than not it wasn't. On May 15th, 1990, my mom had to carry me to the end of the driveway because the snow was too deep for me to walk through and make it on the bus to kindergarten. The night of my senior prom, the last weekend of April in 2002, we received over a foot of heavy snow. My friends and I walked out to the car barefoot because heels were more dangerous. Then it took an hour to drive the two miles back to my friend's house because we were pushing snow with the car's bumper and kept getting stuck.

Hwy 62 outside of Crater Lake NP.

I'm no stranger to snow and often the first to roll my eyes when all my California friends talk about the rare snowy days we get on the coast. Guys, that stuff isn't even sticking to the ground. It totally doesn't count. More often than not, tales of nearby snow amounts are unimpressive. I know what a lot of snow looks like. Or at least I thought I did.

Then I visited Crater Lake this year. 

Unimpressive these last few years due to the drought, I'd heard tales of the walls of snow carved through the mountains, but never saw them myself. This year, snow levels have not only returned to normal but finally exceeding them with Crater Lake's snow pack at 116% of normal for this time of year. The park road to the rim hasn't been open for weeks because crews wait until it stops snowing to actually plow. The snowbank at the closed gate was about ten feet high during our visit, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

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In the morning rain, it felt odd to be loading the car with skis. Nobody skis in the rain. It took over an hour of driving to find any sign of snow, but once we did, it was incredible. Crews were taking great care to keep the open but it seemed to be accumulating faster than the plows could push it away. When we arrived at the Thousand Springs Sno Park, I was relieved. For as much as I enjoy playing in the snow, I do not like driving in it.

We climbed out of the parking lot and atop a large wall of snow. Unlike the previous ski day, we were the first to arrive. Today it was our turn to break trail into the fresh powder. We took a few minutes to check out the warming hut before setting out.

My favorite part of the day was the trees. Weighted down by heavy snow, it appeared each one was folded up, sighing under the enormous weight. One of my favorite things about skiing in Fairbanks was shaking the toppled black spruce trees free. They always sprung back so enthusiastically, as if they were saying thank you for digging them out. The trees here were far too tall for this, but what an incredible sight. My winters in the U.P. were far too windy for this type of accumulation.

We took to following some snowmobile tracks through the web of forest roads. After a couple of miles, we tried to go out on our own, but breaking a new trail through two feet of snow wasn't much fun so after a short while, we turned around.  My left wrist began to get cranky so we turned around and had traveled 4.5 miles, which was about the same as the previous day but with much greater effort.

Matt and I tucked back in the car while we ate our lunches and decided what to do next. My wrist wasn't up for more skiing, but maybe a snowshoe? Since we were already close to Crater Lake and had plenty of daylight left, we decided to pay it a visit. 

Summertime fee station. Obviously there's not entrance fee in the winter. hehe.

There's a visitor center in there somewhere....

The park road was closed so we decided to make the climb up to the rim via trail. Hikes are never more satisfying when there's something potentially beautiful at the top. It was still snowing hard and heard that the trail was only broken about a mile up the mountainside so we held dim hopes of reaching it, but since we were there, we gave it a try. The first mile was easy, following along through a maze of snowshoe tracks whose side walls were nearly three feet tall.

We soon reached the point where the ranger must have turned around. Now it was up to us. The increasingly steep slope made for very slow going and I stopped a lot to catch my breath take videos.

The trees here were much shorter and closer to the trail. Of all my adventures this winter, I think this snowshoe hike was my favorite.

After the sky began to darken, we decided to turn around. Certain we were not far from the rim, we convinced ourselves the lake wouldn't be visible anyway.  As I'd later notice on my GPS map, we were very close to the rim village and the lodge. Oh well.

Almost there!

On our return trip, we encountered another snowshoe hiker from Seattle who was surprised to hear that we were the ones breaking the trail. He seemed to think that was the job of the winter ranger. Or something. Oh, city people. ;)

The sun managed to come out for approximately five seconds and cast a really cool light over the landscape.

Our return trip brought the distance up to 2.5 miles which was just enough to leave us thoroughly exhausted for the day.

Back to Medford for some pizza and Dairy Queen!