The beginning of the #AwesomeRoadTrip
The world is such a beautiful place. Nature has so much to offer if you are ready to accept it and admire it. As the saying goes, "the beauty lies in eyes of the beholder" so it up to us humans how we perceive the beauty in the nature. We as a family had been enchanted by nature, so we keep returning back to it again and again in whatever way we can.
This time we were ready to roll the wheels for a good two weeks exploring the north-west.
however early in the morning that we could manage.
After one stop for food and rest we managed to reach our destination, our campsite. We were camping at the Farewell Bend campground, just adjacent to Rogue river, which falls under Prospect, Oregon. This was about 12 miles from Mazama Village, the entrance point to Crater Lake. A very beautiful serene place with lots of greenery. This was possibly the closest campground that we could afford to get. As I have mentioned in the past, plan ahead. Even though this was planned about 1.5 months in advance, possibly was not early enough.
We were set up for three days there. First day mostly included reaching and setting ourselves up there and enjoy the evening. The campground was very quiet and beautiful and the sound of the river gushing by the side created a soothing effect on the souls. Being in the wild you ought to experience the wilderness and that is the best part of the visit. We shared the space with very friendly but creepy and chirpy chipmunks and had to be very careful about our food. But the kids definitely had a good time with them.
Our second day started early and we were soon setup to explore the area. Rogue river itself gave a few options of exploration. We were able to visit the Rogue river gorge and the Mill Creek Falls. Getting to the Gorge was easy as it was very near to the campground but reaching the falls was a little challenging as with no network around you need to rely just on what the signboards say. But finally after some search and a little hike we could reach them.
Mill Creek Falls (Abt 75 ft high)
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| Local Vegetation |
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| Lava tubes at rogue river gorge |
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| The Gorge |
After a great day we got to enjoy the evening at our awesome campsite with some awesome food and retired for the night.
Oh how beautiful is this place ...
Crater Lake National Park
Next morning, our day 2 was bright and beautiful. We had our plans to explore the Crater Lake National Park. So we started our journey as soon as we could ;) . There are two main entrances to the park, the West and the North entrance. We were near the west entrance and so used the one and thats where the Mazama Village is located.
As the name suggests the Crater Lake is in the crater of an extinct volcano formed after its collapse after the eruption about 7700 years ago on Mount Mazama. Another eruption later also formed the Wizard Island inside the late. So it is a volcano inside a volcano. It also forms a part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the north-western US extending upto British Columbia.
It is fed by rain and snow and is the deepest lake in the United States (592 meters / 1943 feet). It is supposed to be the cleanest large water body and is known for the exceptional blue color and clarity. The rim of the lake spans about 33 miles and is divided into North, south, west and east rims. There is abundant to explore. Be it hiking, camping, swimming, picnicking or even star gazing, you can do it all here.
Don't forget to touch the water !!!
We had already booked the 2 hour boat ride tickets for a tour around the lake. The boats are boarded after about 30-45 minutes strenuous hike down the rim at the Cleetwood Cove. So all excited and backpacking our little ones, we just managed to reach the boarding point but alas we were not allowed to board. The situation made us all furious but apparently they do not allow kids below 3 years to board the boat due to safety reasons. Its difficult to get the help down there in case of a mishappening. Totally understandable but yeah wish they told us earlier. The older one was too much heart broken. A little sad ourselves too, we decided to still enjoy the location and in the end were glad we hiked down there. Would not have got to touch the waters otherwise.
Were very amazed to see how some brave hearts were taking a plunge into the lake to enjoy the waters, however cold it may be. Some others just getting near the water while some others taking a safe dip :) and some others just enjoying the scenic beauty.
After spending some quality time we were ready to hike back up. A bigger challenge than coming down especially on a bright sunny hot day. But yeah "we did it", thats what our kiddo told us at the end of it :) .
After some rest we began to explore the rim and the surrounding areas. Some of the points we explored were the Discovery Point, The Cloud Cap overlook, watchman overlook, Phantom ship overlook and the Videa Falls. Also got a glance at the impact the #WesternWildFires were having. The are more than 30 pullout available across the rim that offers beautiful views of the lake. A few other nice points of interests are available at some hikes but we were done for the day with just one ;).
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| The Phanton Ship as seen from Sun Notch |
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| Volcano inside a volcano (The Wizard Island) |
We were racing with time as the sun was about to set and as told by the ranger station that best views of the sunset are at the Discovery point which was about 30 mins drive from where we were. Somehow we just managed to reach and discovered at the discovery point that it was at the West Rim (oops, sunset from the west direction, what can we manage to capture..). These are a few shots that we managed to get.
As soon as the sun went down, we just had one more hour left to be ready for our next activity. Can you guess what could it be after sunset ?? So we rushed to get some food as we needed to be back to the Discovery Point for it. While getting our food ready, we met some fellow hikers and campers who unfortunately had to descend back from their hike due to the smoke. That was the impact of the #WesternWildFires.
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| Clouds setting into the lake (Effect of Wildfires) |
Some of you might have got it as I gave you a hint earlier. Luckily there was a star party being hosted by the rangers that night and it was one of the nights for the Perseid meteor shower. Though it was not at its peak but could we could witness a few strikes. The star parties are a very attractive events at the national parks and do offer some great learning experiences. All done for the day headed for our campsite that seemed too far away that night and we wished we got something nearer.
Time to move ahead.
The next morning came a little late after the obvious late night. We decided to enjoy the river then pack up to move towards our next destination.
It was already the third day of our trip and at this point. By this time fires were taking a toll upon the forest and as a result our main route Hwy 230 was shut. So we had to detour via Bend and so we decided to take another look at the lake while passing. This way we took an exit from the North entrance of the park and got a glance of the Pumice desert as well.
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| Pumice Desert |
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| The North Entrance |
By this time we had realized the true ability of Nature in both its ferocious and tender forms and hoped to see more of its beauty in true form. So we were already moving ahead in our journey and were bound north to reach Mount Hood by evening, our next destination.
Stay tuned for our experiences further and happy reading !!!
PS: You can also get to know all about Crater Lake and what it offers in my future post dedicated to it.
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