August 26, 2013 Crater Lake National Park, Day 2

     Day 2 at Crater Lake was bright and sunny, the opposite of Day 1.  Today we finally got to see the intense blue of the lake.  We drove the Rim Drive in the opposite direction as yesterday, going down the east side first and back up the west side.  The first thing we did was stop at Cleetwood Cove, where folks can hike down to the water and board the tour boat for a 2 hour ride.  We decided against the boat tour, but we did hike down to the water.  Oy!  The hike down was great...  but hiking up was not fun.  We didn't have enough water, and we had not eaten lunch, and that is one steep climb!  Took us over an hour to get back up top, hearts pounding and panting, but we did it!  How fast could we get to the truck and our water and lunch!  Whew!
     Then we drove around the lake and enjoyed seeing the same sights as yesterday, only in bright sun and brilliant colors.  We stopped at a few more places on the south side of the crater, and had a lovely lunch at the Mazama Campground headquarters.
     We ended the day with the ranger-guided sunset hike up Watchman Overlook.  We got there late so hiked up by ourselves, and loitered at the top (8013 ft.) watching the sun going down. Eventually the ranger led us all up to the outdoor walkway around the fire station and we enjoyed the final colors of the evening.  What a wonderful way to end our visit to Crater Lake!

p.s.  These posts come to you courtesy of my sister, who is allowing me to use her wifi.  Thanks, Roofie!

Here is the Official Park Sign picture...

These colors are not modified - that lake is an amazing shade of blue.

Snow poles in place around the roads & parking areas - notice the reflectors are way up at the top.
This place gets a LOT of snow....

This is an elevation marker.  (pant-pant)

Our first hike of the day; 700 ft. elevation change.  WHAT were we thinking?

Downhill was great....

Protecting my head from falling rocks!

Lakeside.

Another group prepares to board the tour boat.

On top of Watchman Overlook; parking lot is waaaay down there.

Fire Tower on top of Watchman Overlook.

Sunset over the Cascade Range.

Crater Lake at sunset.

August 25, 2013 Crater Lake National Park, Day 1

Sunday was our first visit to Crater Lake, on a cloudy, cold, rainy day.  We didn't mind, though, since the views were so dramatic!  We were camped a few miles north of the park, so we arrived at North Junction and drove the 33 mile loop down the west side and then back up the east side.  It was quite wet & chilly so we did no hiking, but we visited almost every feature and overlook; each one was awesome!  Midday was all thunderstorms, so we sheltered in the Crater Lake Lodge, which was full of folks like us waiting out the storm.  Then the power went out, which bothered no one since we were all warm & dry.

General layout of the park.  Hope you can enlarge & see this.

Driving into the park from the north, we first encountered this....

Which looked like this....

This was the elevation when we arrived at the Rim Drive.

And this was the temp at the Rim Drive, which is COLD when there's a strong wind blowing...

Sure was glad I brought this insulated windbreaker....

Wizard Island.

Hiding from the storm in the Crater Lake Lodge, which was a very good idea....

The Crater Lake Lodge.

The Phantom Ship.

How the Pinnacles were formed....

Some pinnacles wore wizard hats...

Long view of the pinnacles.

The pumice castle.

Newberry knotweed covered a lot of open area with lovely shades of red/pink/green.

Sorry we didn't do this trail, it was about to rain....

Mount Scott.

And the storm comes across the lake...

August 21, 2013 Gray's Harbor, Westport, WA

We spent 3 nights here and enjoyed our final visit on the Pacific Coast;  after this we'll turn inland and head for the Cascade mountains.
The first evening on the beach, the wind was strong;  the dry sand was blowing sideways & sandblasting everything in its path (including my ankles).  We walked on the wet sand (low tide) for a while but it was too windy and chilly out there, so we gave up & came home.  While here, we visited the lighthouse and the waterfront, and loved it.  Wanna go fishing?  Lots of charter boats and happy people catching salmon, tuna, you name it.  Didn't go fishing or didn't catch anything?  Happy to sell you some, fresh off the boat!  As I am fond of saying:  sign me up!  We bought ourselves a nice boiled Dungeness crab to take home....

Apparently this is surfing territory!

Low tide, beach shelters.

Gray's Harbor Lighthouse 

Looking up.....  341 stairs. 

1895.

Westport waterfront and marina.

Somebody caught a bunch of tuna...  hauled 'em off the boat in a wheelbarrow! 

Big Dungeness crabs here, so the crab traps are big and also round.

Wanna buy some fresh seafood?

Look at the size of these crabs....!

Here's the crab we bought, already boiled.  Mighty tasty!
(that's a 2 lb. crab on a full size dinner plate) 

Didn't take us long....

August 18, 2013 Cape Flattery, Washington

Cape Flattery (cape: point or head of land projecting into a body of water) is the most northwestern point of land in the USA (except for Alaska).  It was a beautiful drive thru the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, along the coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, then up to the Cape.  The whole cape area is riddled with sea caves and is gradually eroding away.  The views are spectacular;  we saw gulls, cormorants, oystercatchers, and murres, and sea lions lounging on the smaller islands out by the lighthouse.  We looked, but didn't see any seals or whales.  Another wonderful day in the Pacific Northwest!

Coastal drive along the Strait of Juan de Fuca....

Those are not stones:  they are slices of tree trunk.

Low tide....

Sea caves.

On the edge....

Closeup of Cape Flattery lighthouse.

Cape Flattery Lighthouse behind us.

Oystercatcher.

Rugged coastline.

Info sign.

Sea caves.

See that gnome peeking at ya? 

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Don't hold still, moss'll grow on ya!