First stop- Crater Lake (three days, two nights)- Day 1

I am going to try to write up some of our experiences from our vacation in early July.  I think I will do it day by day.  I will maybe post a few pictures, too.

I am a  native Oregonian.  I have never been to Crater Lake (does that sound like an almost sin?).  I have always wanted to go.  So, as part of our Summer Vacation 2010 adventure, we decided to divide up our driving into roughly four hour time slots (drive four hours- stop somewhere for at least one night- continue driving).  We thought it would be easier on the youngest son to not drive 12 hours in one day.  Which, it did work out well overall (except on two occasions, but those are future posts).

Words are insufficient to describe Crater Lake.  You enter the park and there is no lake.  Drive for a short distance (up) and then round a bend and you see it.  Rob/Paul says it is the most beautiful place he has ever been (and he has travelled all over the US).  The deep blue of the water reminded us of the blue of the Mediteranean.  But this is a LAKE.  He grew up surrounded by lakes (the great lakes anyone?).  And he had never seen a lake quite like this.  And you cannot just walk down to the lake.  There are two (I believe) trails that lead down to the lake- otherwise it is a literal bowl of water- cliffs straight down to the water.

Ok, other than the indescribable beauty (I agree, it is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever visited- I would have liked to have been one of those pioneers who happened on the lake- a few too many tourists to call it really peaceful) I was surprised by the amount of snow still on the ground!  We could not do the rim drive because half the rim road was closed due to snow (all the while I am thinking that we are camping in this- Paul has threatened to take me winter camping on Mt. Hood every year - he goes with friends- I always decline- camping in snow just doesn't sound fun to me).  Anyway, it was not ever cold, just that there were snow packs on the ground.  Even in our campsite.  And because it is such a late thaw, the mosquitoes were everywhere.  I stepped out of our vehicle to be greeted by hundreds of eager mosquitoes, ready for dinner (and we were dinner).  One can of deep woods off later we were ready to battle the mosquitoes (needless to stay, after three days and two nights at this site, the mosquitoes won) and set up camp.  It was a nice site.  We had our own personal snowpack that little p had fun climbing up and down (declaring that he was king of the mountain). 

We walked around our campground.  Paul and Big P hiked the trail down to Annie Creek (I believe that was what it was called?!?).  little p did not want to go- which was probably a good thing because there was a lot of snow on the trails and would have been a difficult hike for him.

*no pictures posted, yet.  I deleted them off of the laptop after posting them on Facebook (we keep our pictures on the upstairs computer).