Today was one of the most amazing days I have had in a long time. Ariel and I drove up to Crater Lake to bike the rim road around the lake. Neither one of us had been there before and it is a national park which is supposed to be amazing! The drive from Ashland was about 2 hours on twisty, winding roads up into the Cascade Mountains. The elevation gain was big and I could feel my nose burning as we drove up higher and higher.
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the world at 1932 feet at it's deepest point and used to be a Volcano that erupted 7,700 years ago. The whole top blew off and created this giant hole that eventually filled up with water because the molten lava sealed the bottom off. When you first see it you are awed by the sheer size of it and then think it looks fake or surreal because the water is so blue and it is 1000 feet down to the water. The lake looks so calm and everything above reflects so you can see the sky and mountains so it sort of looks like a reverse double image. Here is one of the first photos I took:
Isn't it amazing??!!!
We started our bike ride at the Rim Village where we first saw the lake and rode clockwise around the rim. Today the road was open to both cars and bikes all the way around. Last week when I called 1/2 of it was still closed because of snow! And just thursday part of it was open to only bikes and not cars. The snow must have melted pretty fast. We started out around 1:45pm and the temp was about 78 degrees F. No need for arm warmers and jackets! We rode up to the first viewpoint and took some more photos right away. We thought to ourselves that this would be a long ride if we kept stopping.
All over there were these cute little creatures called Golden Mantel Ground Squirrels and they looked much more like a chipmunk than a squirrel as we know them. Of course as a rodent lover I thought they were the cutest things ever!
Isn't he cute?
We kept riding with several stops along the way to photograph and play a bit. The climbs we did ranged from 50 to 650 feet for several miles at a time. The views were amazing and even though the temperature was so warm we saw lots of snow! After Ariel determined how fresh and full of minerals the snow was we stopped here to eat some! :)
Ariel and I check out the snow!
Ariel stops to eat the mineral rich snow :)
The toughest climb was probably the 650 foot one near the end. We had already gone 27 miles and it was another 2.6 miles up. It was amazingly beautiful but pretty tough. The altitude gave me a head ache but we really didn't push it much, taking our time to take in everything and keep us from feeling like our heads would blow off.
We stopped at another viewpoint along the way to get a different view of Wizard Island which is actually a cinder cone sticking up from the lake which formed years after the original eruption. Apparently later on there were several smaller eruptions which created several of these cinder cones--Wizard Island being the largest and most visible at 6,933 feet above sea level! It was quite an amazing site and the best view was from the west rim where we started our ride.
Doesn't it look fake??!!!
It took us just under 3 hours of actual riding time to do the 36 mile loop. The last 3 miles was also a 600 foot climb back to where we had parked the car. I think the highest point was around 8,000 feet and where we started was just over 7,000 feet. It was an amazing day and a great workout! If you haven't ever seen Crater Lake I highly recommend it! It is one of the most amazing things you'll see and it is one of the least traveled national parks--not sure why. I'm exhausted and ready to flop in to bed. Good night!
No comments:
Post a Comment