Crater Lake

Here we go.

WE left Cave Junction and headed back the way we came. Sarah is excellent at planning our trips and we rarely backtrack, but sometimes it is inevitable. About 30 miles of backtracking an we got again to new road. We climbed. This was also the last day we would have Interstate for a while. The Interstate is not usually as interesting, but interesting isn't always fun when you are near 60 feet long and almost 13 feet tall.

We wound our way through mountains for a few hours and drove to the campground like we lived there. It only took 30 minutes or so to set up, by this time we were pretty good at it. Then we went driving around to explore the town Prospect, OR. Less than five miles away and we found waterfalls and a gorge on the Rogue River.



Afterward we went up to Flounce Rock, a viewpoint that was mapped out on the back of a flyer the campground gave us. Great views. Hondo (That is what Michael named the Honda Civic.) lived up to his adventure car billing and carried us up 10% pot hole filled gravel road grades. We reached the top and explored for a while. At the official Flounce Rock viewpoint someone placed a memorial for a loved one lost in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam war. Pretty cool.







We made our way back to the campground, cooked some food and got some rest, the next day was Crater Lake. We had a drive of an hour or so up to the Lake. When we got there it became apparent that despite being July, many of the roads were closed due to snow. Less than half of the rim drive was open. We did get to drive around and look for a few hours and we sat and had a picnic lunch on a wall overlooking a 1000 foot drop to the lake. Beautiful spot. Then we drove home. It was a bit of a letdown that we couldn't see as much as we wanted, but that is life sometimes. It just gives us a good excuse to go back.