Written 2018
Day 2
Sunday morning started off nicely, as we both slept super well that night! For breakfast this morning, we made some chocolate chip pancakes on my stainless steel pan. I’d never made them on that before, so I was a little worried, but they came out delicious, and we had no sticking problems! After we cleaned up, we made our way over to the north junction of Crater Lake, which was about 12 miles away from us. This is when we got our first of many views of the beautiful lake… and since it was morning, it showed like a mirror….reflecting the clouds and mountains on its surface….gorgeous!
Pancakes for Breakfast
Rim views of Crater Lake
We made our way to the Visitor Center, and after looking through the visitor guide, decided to start our adventure off by hiking up Garfield Peak since that was close by. It was roughly 4 miles total, out and back, with 1000 ft of elevation gain…so a nice way to start off the day. We decided to bring a sub with us to eat up at the top…thank goodness we did, because I was super hungry by the time we got up there. The pancakes weren’t quite enough for me. Anyways, we saw some great views (and yellow-bellied marmots) along the way up, and once we made it up top, were treated to nice panoramic views of the park! It was also nice, because there were only 3 others up there…so we were able to take the views in in peace. Unfortunately, the rain was starting to come…as on our way up, we could hear the thunder getting closer and closer, and by the time we finished our lunch up there, we were starting to see lightning bolts across the sky. I tried to snap some pictures which would’ve been amazing…but I was always just a second too late! So before the rain started to come down on us too hard, we decided to make our way down. Thankfully, we only got a very light sprinkling for just a few minutes…and it passed on, as we seemed to just be on the outskirts of the storm.
Garfield Peak Hike
When we made it back down to the Visitors Center, the skies were still fairly dark above and around us…so we weren’t sure what to do next. I could see down south, the skies were clear as day though….so I looked on our map and it looked like Annie Creek was over in that direction. My friend Josh has said this was a nice little place to check out, with some nice wildflowers, so we decided to head over there. We drove through some rain to get there…but thankfully, once we made it over there (which was just inside of the Mazama Campgrounds), it was all blue skies! The hike was about a 2 mile long loop, and fairly easy for the most part. It started up above the canyon, and eventually wound it’s way down into there, alongside the creek…where the wildflowers prettily grew.
Annie Creek Hike
After the hike, we tried to pick up some ice at the campground store, but unfortunately, they were all out! And just as we were coming out of the store, the rain was starting to come down hard!! So we jumped into the car, and drove back up to the rim. Our plan actually was to check out some of the other sites going east, but I missed the turnoff, and we wound up back at the visitor center. Thankfully…no rain there anymore. We decided to head back west and hike up Watchman Peak. This was something I wanted to do for sunset one evening, as it’s supposed to be gorgeous from there…but we decided to just do it then instead of do more driving around. It was about 2 miles out and back, with some challenging steeper sections, but for the most part..not too bad. We were treated to a nice view of the lake, and could see sunset would be nice from up there…but I wasn’t too disappointed, because the sunset actually wouldn’t be overlooking the lake since we were to the west of it.
Watchman Peak Hike
After Watchman, we decided to head back to the campground to make some dinner, so that we could come back out here for sunset. We grilled some chicken breasts over the campfire, and made some taste grilled chicken sandwiches with parmesan cheese and avocado. After we cleaned up our area, we decided it was probably a good time to clean ourselves up… and wow…did that feel good! Just like the reviews I read online, the showers were very clean and were filled with hot water! We felt brand new!
So we made our way back to the Lake after that, and drove out over to the far east side of the lake to Cloudcap Overlook. The view of the lake was very nice over there, but we got there around 8, so were a bit early for sunset. So we decided to drive on a little further to check out the Pumice Castle overlook. It was kinda neat…nothing too spectacular…but we checked another viewpoint off the list! We checked out the viewpoint…walked in the wooded area a bit…took some pictures..and then made our way back to Cloudcap.
Pumice Castle Overlook
By the time we made it back out to Cloudcap, there were a few more people there, but far from being crowded…probably less than 10 people total. It was getting to be a really pretty sight across the lake, so we took some selfies…set up one of our phones to time-lapse, and then sat there and just enjoyed the beauty of the sun setting down below the mountains. A sliver of the moon and a nearby star were also in sight, which made sundown even more special. As the sun disappeared below the horizon though…so did the mosquitoes…and we didn’t arm ourselves with any Off, so we took off outta there! On the way down, we made a couple stops, as the sunset views were spectacular looking back, and we couldn’t help but watch a little more of it.
Cloudcap Overlook Sunset
When we got back to the campground, it wasn’t too late, so we decided we’d make some s’mores. Norina’s family had this fancy s’more holder, where you assembled it inside this cage, and put the whole thing over the fire (instead of only the marshmellow). It was a neat idea…but in the end…not too useful, as it actually melted the chocolate much faster then the marshmellow. That didn’t stop it all from tasting good though, and was the perfect way to end off the night!
Campfire S’mores
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