National Park #8 Crater Lake August 10, 2013

We got up sadly early this morning (5am?) thanks to Grant, ate pop tarts and toast in our room then got in the car and headed into the park.  Of course, the most important stop was the sign!!!

We came in from the south and I had anally big plans to hit this thing on a perfect schedule driving the rim counter clockwise, all culminating in a hike labeled strenuous by the park itself.  Well of course today was the day of the annual Rim Race marathon that ran clockwise around the rim and required all drivers to do the same.  Hum.  So we improvised a bit.  If you imagine the lake as the face of a clock, we came in at 7:00 and first stopped just outside of the entry gate, at the Annie Creek Gift Shop so that we could buy the now-mandatory hat pin and magnet for each of the kids. 

Our first stopped along Rim Drive was Discovery Point (8:00).  This is Grant is his brand new Volcom jacket (possibly the dumbest thing ever invented) but he got it two days ago and has been talking about it for 11 months (aka 20% of his life)

 

 

 

 

Next, at 9:00 (on the face of a clock remember), was Watchman Overlook.  Beautiful.

 

 

We got a caught by surprise when heading to our next stop, Cleetwood Cover Trail (Strenuous Hike, Bribery Trail, I could go on forever) because we passed many runners who were already walking only 6 miles into the marathon.  Nope, they were actually crossing the finish like of the associated 10K right at our trail head (which was at 1:00 btw).  We parked and got the kids all pumped up by talking of double ice cream cones if no one complained.  Not a long hike actually...only about a mile or so down but the return hike was straight up.  However, we were DOING THIS because it's the only place where you can legally get into the lake.  So off we went.

 

 

 

Of course on the way down the kids were like, "This is totally easy!  I'm so getting ice cream!"

 

Once we got to the bottom, it was simply magical.  The water was freezing but crystal clear.  We stuck our feet in, ate some Pringles, fed some Chipmunks and tried to get psyched up for our ascension.

 

We trudged up the hill (lots of complaining) got in the car and continued on.  I asked the kids if they liked it to which they replied that they landoliked it, a term we coined on the plane the day before which means, "I liked and I did not like it."