We stayed three nights at Crater Lake RV Park. We spent the first full day at Crater Lake National Park and its surrounding area. Then we hiked some trails near the campground on the second day, to see local waterfalls.
DAY 1
Randy & I were both in awe of our first view of Crater Lake from Discovery Point in Rim Village. Its deep blue color and crisp reflections of surrounding mountains were stunning. In Randy’s words, “Crater Lake just may be the singularly most beautiful place, pound for pound, we’ve seen so far. My mind still hasn’t fully grokked the sheer scale and enormity of it; my brain just can’t grasp that Wizard Island, which looks to me to be maybe 100-200 feet high, rises 750 feet above the water, and the walls surrounding the lake are nearly 2000 feet tall! The clarity and stunning sapphire blue color is simply amazing and pictures really don’t capture it fully.”
Crater Lake was formed after an erupted volcano’s lava sealed the 1,943 ft deep crater then rain and snow eventually filled it up. There are no inlets or outlets to/from the lake, so the water is pristine. We drove around as much as the rim that was open and took in all the different perspectives of the lake. We were planning to hike up to Watchman Peak, but there was snow covering the trail still. We hiked up a ways, considered hiking through the snow, but decided to turn around after a few icy, slippery steps.
Also, the East Rim Road was under construction while we were there, so we missed seeing views from the Cloudcap, Phantom Ship, and Pinnacles Overlooks, but the views we DID see still made the trip totally worth it. We also missed out on hiking to Vidae Falls, but we made up for that by seeing eight other waterfalls outside of the National Park!
We drove out the North Entrance of the park, then went west to visit several falls. We stopped at Toketee Falls first, and hiked the 1 mile out-and-back trail that had about 100 steps. This trailhead had and interesting 12-foot diameter redwood-stave pipeline that was built in 1949 as part of a Hydroelectric Project. Even with all its leaks, its water powers three generator turbines that are able to power approximately 22,500 homes.
Next, we stopped at the nearby Watson Falls, that a friendly couple at Toketee recommended we do. It was really pretty, with a ton of moss covered boulders at its base. The hike was supposed to be a loop, but half of the loop was closed due to a damaged bridge, so it was over a mile out-and-back instead. I was starting to get pretty tired at this point — around 5pm, but it was still worth the effort!
Clearwater Falls was just off the main road as we were heading back to the RV, so we stopped for a few quick photos there. Kind of weird how many logs were fallen over the water, but it was still nice. By the time we were done there, it was going to be around 7pm before we’d get back to the RV, so we decided to stop at Beckie’s Cafe for dinner. Our campground host had recommended it and it was indeed pretty good. I got a BBQ Bacon Burger and Randy got a Chicken Pot Pie and we split them both. Beckie is evidently known for her pies, so we felt we needed to try a piece of that, too, while we were there, ha. Neither of us had tried Boysenberry before, but both really liked it.
Our campground host had also recommended the Natural Bridge trail, so we stopped there to walk off the extra pie calories (it was less than a mile, so I don’t think we met that goal, but it was still a cool place to visit). You can see in the video how the water disappears underground, going through a lava tube for about 200 ft, before coming back out.
Whew, that was a FULL day of sightseeing! And there are still a few more things we’d like to explore before leaving this area, so we’ll go back out tomorrow.
DAY 2
The campground host had recommended several more waterfalls near the campground, so we spent a few hours driving and hiking around to see them. We parked at the trailhead then hiked about one mile out-and-back to see Mill Creek Falls and Barr Creek Falls, which were near each other. Instead of stopping at the trailhead, we hiked out-and-back for about a mile in the opposite direction to the Avenue of the Boulders. It was fun climbing around on the boulders and listening to the roaring water. Once I found an extremely scenic spot on top of a large boulder, I decided to hand out there while Randy continued exploring. Thankfully, he eventually came back, with only a little bit of trouble relocating me, ha!
That same trail also connected Pearsoney Falls, but we weren’t sure how far it would be, so we drove the truck to a closer trailhead then did the short hike out-and-back to it. Also, on the way to Pearsoney, we stopped at Gorge Lookout for a few quick photos.
We could have spent several more hours exploring other beautiful sites in Prospect, OR, but we have a 7 hour drive tomorrow to get to Mount Rainier, so we decided to go back to the RV to rest some. The Campground had live music and a campfire with hotdogs and marshmallow on our last night here, too. We had an earlier dinner instead of waiting for the cookout, but Randy went out to enjoy enough marshmallows for both of us! We had a great time in Prospect, OR — so many beautiful sites to see!
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