Our boat tour guide to Wizard Island told us about how Native Americans believe that Crater Lake is sacred ground. He asked us to contemplate on how the lake is sacred to us and what sacrifices we have made for the lake. Here are some of our sacrafices:
1. No internet access for 4 days.
2. A steep hike up and down Cleetwood Cove to reach the boat.
Cleetwood Cove trail is the only way to access the lake. It is the steepest trail in the park and it has a 700 foot elevation loss/gain in less than a mile. Here is an elevation profile and topo map from our hike down.
Here is the track for our boat ride to Wizard Island.
Crater Lake is much more a mirror lake than Mirror lake in Yosemite. It is also much clearer than Clearlake.
3. Rocky hike to the top of Wizard Island. Here is a "Harry Potter" type tree on the island next to a muggle.
The views of the lake from Wizard Island were spectacular.
It was also cool to see the caldera in the middle of the island.
Here is our hike on Wizard Island. The caldera is visible in the middle.
4. Pesky ground squirrels on Wizard Island that try to steal your food.
The boat tour took us to a waterfall cascading down the caldera into the lake. Andreas spotted a deer trying to reach the waterfall.
5. Getting hailed on...Sacrifices totally worth it.
It all looks like so much fun. I especially love the video input, nice touch!
ReplyDeleteBut imagine managing 4 whole days without internet access!!! And you lived to tell about it!!! ;-p