Crater Lake Oregon | Cascadia Road Trip, Part 1

I dozed off amidst in the vineyards, and I woke up in the evergreens. We had left at the crack of dawn, embarking on our road trip up the west coast. Our first destination was Crater Lake, Oregon.

All that I knew about Crater Lake beforehand was that it was somewhere between San Francsico and Portland and that it was a big lake. Between the long detour and getting stuck behind slow vehicles on the two-lane roads lined with impossibly tall and skinny trees, a tinge of skepticism may have nudged its way in. Were we going the right way? Hopefully this stop was going to be worth it.

Finally, we drove up the southwest side of the lake, pulled off at the first vista point, and hopped out of the car. Immediately it was obvious: it was definitely worth it. The lake so vividly spelled out for us the very definitions of Blue and Green.

Sigh. Nature. Crater Lake is formed from a volcano that caved in on itself, and it’s a lake with no tributaries– all that perfectly still blue water comes from rain and snow– and lots of it. Apparently Crater Lake has more snowfall than Tahoe, but we just happened to time our visit perfectly with basically no snow and amazing sunshine to boot.

Howard was the catalyst for the road trip. He was on a visit back to the states after having moved to Australia last year.

Young was hanging on the edge of the earth.

And Vince scrambled up some rocks to stand atop the earth.

Whee!

And thus began the road trip. More to come!

Technical note: some of these images were shot on 35mm Fuji 400H film. Thanks to Richard Photo Lab for the scans!