Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park was the last significant stop on my recent trip to the Pacific Northwest. Located about 50 miles north of the California border, it is the only national park in Oregon. The park centers on the magnificent lake with its deep, cold, and intensely blue waters.

Crater Lake and Wizard Island (center) from the southwest side of rim drive.

Wizard Island is a small crater that formed inside Crater Lake
after the massive eruption of Mount Mazama (NPS 2013). With
its beautiful shape, it is my favorite feature of the Park.

The crater in which the lake rests was formed by a massive volcanic explosion some 7700 years ago. Prior to this cataclysmic eruption, Mount Mazama was one of the highest peaks in the Cascade Range, reaching about 12,000 feet in elevation (NPS 2013). The area has breathtaking vistas and holds fascinating lessons in geology.

I camped for a single night at Lost Creek campground, a small site among pines on the eastern slope of the mountain. It was the night of the lunar eclipse and blood moon and Crater Lake was the perfect location for sky watching. At about full eclipse in the late evening (approximately 8 PM PDT), hundreds of stars were visible in the darkened sky because of the obscured moon. Later, after the eclipse lapsed, the landscape became much more illuminated from the brilliant full moon. I drove back down the road a few miles from the campsite to the pinnacles area that I had visited just before sunset.

Pinnacles at the southeast side of the park. The discreet bands of color show
the evolving composition of volcanic material as it was erupted from Mount
Mazama 7700 years ago (NPS 2013).

I have made a few day trips to Crater Lake in the past, but saw the pinnacles for the first time on this trip. Formed during the last eruption, they stand as spires on both sides of a wide valley cut into the eastern slope of Mount Mazama. In essence, during the eruption large flows of hot ash poured down the slopes of the mountain. Heated gases rose through the ash to escape into the atmosphere over time, hardening columns of mud (called “tuff”) surrounding the gaseous vents. Finally over time, erosion removed the softer ash but not the more hardened columns of mudstone surrounding the vents, leaving a landscape of spires for us to admire today (NPS 2013).

Crater Lake from the trail at Cleetwood
Cove.

In the morning following a cold night of camping, I hiked down the only trail that leads from the rim of the crater to the lake itself. It is a short but moderately steep trail that passes through light conifer forest. The water of the lake was calm, reflecting sparkles from the sun in the east. At the end of the trail there is a boat launch (for paid tours to Wizard Island), and a small shack housing a water level measurement station. I put my feet in the cold lake in the warm morning sun.

The history of Crater Lake is one of violent geologic forces, but the placid lake and singing birds on a warm morning in early fall, and the green carpets of forest on Mount Mazama’s slopes belied its turbulent past.

Reference

National Park Service (2013). Crater Lake National Park. Geologic Resources Inventory Report. Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/GRD/NRR-2013/719

The pinnacles illuminated by the full moon.

The eclipse and blood moon from the Park.