Crater Lake and Rogue River

We all knew the romance had to end - we finally had to leave Bend and continue our trip.  To fuel up, we hit one of the many Dutch Brothers Coffee Company drive-through cafes; the server saw our BC plates and gave us travel advice, friendly service and my Americano was on the house!  Hard to beat that.

We headed south on Highway 97 through a seemingly endless plain of sparse pine forest, then west and uphill to the North entrance of Oregon's only National Park, Crater Lake.  Crater Lake is in the huge (10 km wide) collapsed crater of a volcano.  The only source of water is rain and snow, and it slowly leaches out through the volcanic rock, but it's nearly at equilibrium so the lake level remains very stable.  The sides of the crater are nearly vertical; there is only one trail from the rim of the crater down to lake level.

Approaching the rim - snow in mid-July

The rim of the crater is at an altitude of almost 8000 feet, and we couldn't drive the entire ring road because part of it was still closed due to snow.

We had a hot lunch of soup, tea and coffee at one of the pullouts overlooking the lake

Wizard Island is a smaller volcanic cinder cone that formed inside the main  crater long after the first major eruption

There's a fire spotting station on this peak, at the crater's rim

Crater Lake Lodge, built in the early 20th century and recently restored and upgraded

Wooden rockers at the lodge...

...with a great view

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA (almost 600m in one spot, though it averages about 350m), and the lake is about 300m below the rim of the crater.

Very clear, very blue water

Nope, it's not posed in front of a painted backdrop - that's really how it looks!

From Crater Lake, we descended a long, windy forest road to an early portion of the Rogue River, having a peek at the small Rogue Gorge that formed from collapsed lava tubes.

Hollow lava tube on top, plugged one on bottom

We continued on to an absolutely massive state park beside I5 - Valley Of The Rogue.  (It's almost 2 miles long.)  We had our fingers crossed that they would still have a yurt available, as it has been Sarah's not-so-secret dream for years to stay in a yurt.  Normally yurts book up months in advance during peak camping season, but luck was with us and we got a very nice camping yurt for the night.  (No plasma TVs or room service here.)

Wow, even a covered porch.  How do we all not live in these?

Yurt dreams CAN come true!

Deluxe yurt dinner al fresco

Sometimes, sandal-wearing feet need a yurt-side pedicure soak in a dishpan

Yurt life is great, especially when there's a bit of rain overnight.  And it's very unlike some other camping schemes.  Such as the following diesel bus towing an AC Cobra replica car behind it on a flatbed trailer.  Environmental consciousness at its finest - no one is allowed to complain about the price of gas/diesel while people are still doing this!

This is the campsite's paved "hiking trail".  It's part of a trail being constructed between Ashland and Grant's Pass

The Rogue River runs beside the campground

Lots of invasive blackberries - this bush was about 12 feet tall