Vacation, Day 5 Crater Lake

Overnight the winds picked up and sent a lot of the wild fire smoke in another direction. We had heard from other tourists that crater lake was filled with smoke and not worth s visit but we had reserved and paid for a boat tour and so we decided to try. 

We drove into the park and found the trail to the boat. 

We were in a rush and didn't have breakfast or lunch so we were hungry! 

The path to the boat was 1.1 miles straight down a steep decline. Noah with fresh stitches put a smile on and powered through it. 

We got to the boat dock with just a minute to spare and headed off. The tour guide was a national park ranger named Ashley. She was so informative and helpful. 

Crater Lake us the deepest lake in the U.S. and was formed from a volcano named Mt Mazama 7,000 years ago. The 

Volcano had been erupting every 10,000 years for the past 400,000 years. 

The water was the deepest shade of blue I've ever seen. We first took a ride to Wizard Island, a small island formed from an eruption.  

At Wizard island we got off the boat for three hours and had a choice to hike to an inlet or to a crater summit. Paul and Maeve chose the summit while Noah and I chose the lake. Ina sat by the dock and enjoyed the mountain views. 

The trail Noah and I were on was probably the hardest and most poorly marked trail I was ever on. We hiked through steep volcanic lava rocks. 

We fell and got lost and and at one point had to just slide down the mountain because there was no other way to go. 

When we finally got there the view was beautiful. The bluest water. The mountains and lake in view. Noah and I just hanging out and laughing.  We drank the water because it was clear and clean. The tour guide said it was the cleanest water you can drink.

We met back at the dock in a few hours. Paul and Maeve loved their hike to the summit. They got to stand in a crater on top of a volcano inside another volcano!

At the dock lots of people were jumping in but we were keeping Noah's foot sheltered so we just put in arms and toes and filled up our water bottles. 

After Wizard island the boat tour continued another hour pointing out amazing nuances in the rock and volcano basin. It was really breathtaking and fascinating. As a bonus it was completely clear. The tour guide said it was the clearest day she had seen in a long time. 

The only way to remotely grasp it is to look for people in the picture for size perspective. It was all huge!

After we finally got off the boat we had to make the trek back up the mountain to the car which was grueling!!!

The views up top were with it though!

We headed back to our cabin after a very long but amazing day and went to bed early!