Sunday August 7, Natural Bridge Forestry Camp, Union Creek, OR

Today could not have been more different to yesterday’s drive through the desert. We spent most of the day at Crater Lake National Park climbing to 8000 feet as we drove around the rim of the lake, with snow still lining many of the roads, and some of the hiking tracks closed because of snow.

The Park was only about 1 ½ hours drive north west of our camp, and it is the only National Park in Oregon. It was formed centuries ago when a huge volcano erupted forming a huge caldera, and the lake is the deepest in USA at close to 2000 feet. It is the most amazing deep blue colour, which just takes your breathe away.

We drove the 33 mile Rim Road right around the crater, and there were numerous places to view the lake all the way around. At only one spot you could walk down to the lake, but with the equivalent of climbing 65 flights of stairs ( 65 floors!) we felt our bodies weren’t up to it!.

Lots of wildflowers lined the roads and we did a hike into a wildflower area, although not as many as we expected.

The camp in the park held 200 campers and looked pretty ordinary, no views, really just a place to park. Saw forestry campsites showing on the Rogue River about 20 miles west which we felt were much more appealing, and sure enough have a great little campsite with it’s own wee sandy beach right on the river.