We took a Boat Tour of Crater Lake today. We had to
walk 1.1 miles down to the boat launch. They tell you to plan on being at the
top of the Cleetwood Trail one hour before your departure time. There is no
assistance to get down, you are on your own. The trail is recommended only for
those in good physical condition.
The only legal access to the shore of Crater Lake,
this is a strenuous and steep switchback trail with a steep 10% grade. The
trail descends to a rocky shoreline at Cleetwood Cove where the boat tour
boards and will take you around the lake or drop you off at Wizard Island.
We gave ourselves ample time to get to the trail
parking lot and to walk down. So, we parked, checked in … took a “before”
picture. Then we strolled along the path, laughed, enjoyed the sights and took
too many pictures!
We saw unique sights, like trees growing around rocks
or trees stopping rocks from rolling down the hill. We stopped at the “resting
benches” but only for pictures. We will need to stop and use them on the way
back up!
While you can swim in the magnificent lake, there’s
only one spot where it’s considered safe and legal. That is past the boat docks
at the bottom of the Cleetwood Trail. I am not a big swimmer, in this cold
water … but I did dip my feet into the chilly 40 degrees!
The Crater Lake Boat Tour is the only way to travel
around the lake and gain intimate views of the Phantom Ship, Devil's Backbone,
waterfalls, and the remaining winter snowbanks. Tour boats for the two-hour
volcano cruise proceed counterclockwise around Crater Lake. We had a handsome
young ranger, Jeff, who discussed the lake's geology and answers questions.
The Devils
Backbone is a vertical wall of dark andesite lining the cliff face and
measuring about 1,000 feet long. Of all the dikes on the walls of Crater Lake,
only one, the Devil's Backbone, reaches from the water's edge to the rim. A
dike formed by molten lava that created and filled cracks, as it forced its way
up through the rock and then solidified. It has been left standing by the
erosion of the surrounding material. If this once served as the feeder to a
surface flow, the lava has been removed by erosion. Close to the lake the dike
is 23 feet wide, but upward it increases in width to approximately 50 feet.
For reasons unknown, this full-sized tree trump
floating vertically in Crater Lake has been here for 120 years. It’s known as
The Old Man Of The Lake, an ancient hemlock tree which first appeared in 1902.
This was the same year Crater Lake was named a national park. This story is
probably the park’s most famous phenomenon. A geologist by the name of Joseph
S. Diller first mentioned seeing the amazing stump six years earlier new Wizard
Island at Crater Lake’s west end, when reporting on the cataclysmic events
which shaped the area. In 1929, William Gladstone Steel mentioned seeing “the
great tree, broken squarely off and floating upright.”
Wizard Island looks totally different up close, than
it does from the upper rim. It is a symmetrical cinder cone almost completely
encircled by dark, rugged flows of lava. The summit of the cone rises 763 feet
above the lake, and the area of the cone and lavas exposed above water
approximates a square mile. Were it not for the sparse covering of trees, one
might suppose that the eruptions had only lately ceased, so fresh is the
appearance of both the cone and the flows.
Fishing is also allowed at the cove and on Wizard
Island. You won’t need a license to fish, so there is no limit on your catch
since the both the Rainbow Trout and Kokanee Salmon in the lake are not native.
After looping around Wizard Island, your ranger will
continue to point out geologically significant landmarks as you pass by the
Crater Lake Lodge and make your way to the Phantom Ship.
An avalanche made a “livable” area closer to the
water, we saw no wildlife, but a 10-point buck has been spotted here!
From the water's level, you can really appreciate the
size of the 400,000-year-old, sailboat-shaped formation, which is actually the
oldest exposed rock in the caldera and is as tall as a 16-story building. The
Phantom Ship is a remaining section of the filled conduit of a fissure from
which probably poured many of the lower layers of lava constituting Dutton
Cliff. The island is about 500 feet long and reaches a maximum width of 200
feet near the east end. Its east-west ridge of spires, towering 170 feet above
the water, sharply divides most of the island into two slopes, one very steeply
sloping to the south and the other less steeply to the north.
You'll be able to see some waterfalls, the strength
depends on the time of year, as well as several varieties of wildflowers and
brightly colored lichens—oranges, reds, yellows—which indicate pure air
quality. You may even spot some violet green swallows or the ubiquitous Clark's
nutcracker flitting about the hanging gardens.
Not only is Crater Lake the deepest lake in the
United States, it also ranks as the ninth deepest lake in the world. The actual
depth of Crater Lake bottoms out at an astounding 1,943 feet. The lake is so
clear in fact, you can see over 100 feet down.
The awesome pristine blue and clear water makes this place popular for
boat tours and is an incredible sight when visiting. All of the water in the
lake comes from rain and snowmelt, which explains why the water’s clarity and
why it so incredibly blue.
As you return to the dock you'll see the Pumice Castle. Perched approximately 1,300 feet above you, layers of rock that is resistant to erosion (like andesite and black obsidian) are surrounded by softer pumice that has worn away over time and left this colorful, fortress-like crater wall behind. The park even has a bright, rust-colored castle outcropping on the eastern wall of the caldera. Of the many colorful
volcanic formations in the walls surrounding Crater Lake, The Pumice Castle, attracts
the attention of many visitors. The Pumice Castle is part of an extensive
lenticular bed of fragmental pumice outcropping on the crater wall about 1,300
feet above the level of the lake, or 400 feet below the crater rim just south
of Cloudcap.
In late summer, a white “bathtub ring” becomes
evident along the shore of Crater Lake. It’s a deposit of silica, composed of
the skeletons of dead algae (diatoms). Its upper limit approximates the
high-water mark from late spring.
The Palisades are a series of cliffs that loom over
the lake’s north shore. Below the cliffs is a pile of rubble, left behind by
ancient glaciers, through which most of the lake’s seepage is thought to occur.
More than 2 million gallons of water leak out of Crater Lake every hour.
The boat tour offers a relaxing perspective on the
lake that you can't experience any other way.
The walk up was just as painful as they advertised!
But our group of 5 were troopers … we all made it up in 45 minutes! Lyle was
the fastest and the 4 of us … finished strong together!
It was a once in a lifetime day!
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