August 27th

THE WEATHER: Another beautiful day in Oregon. BTW, I saw a bumper sticker and that is pronounced: orygun. Partly sunny skies and highs in the low 70’s.

THE DISTANCE:

Rick, I included the picture of Gary & I to PROVE to you that we did NOT forget this one!


The drive started out pretty uneventful. Flat, lots of little towns, a few larger ones with a Fred Meyers in them…. that’s like Walmart out here in the west. Though they have Walmarts also, it’s Fred Meyers every one seems to like. It took a few hours of driving into the mountains before things started to change and become more remote. Gary was wondering how the RV was going to handle a 6,000 ft. climb, but we found, to our relief, it was a steady, long upgrade. We reached a total height of 7,960 feet and I could certainly tell when we crossed over the 6,000 ft. mark. My throat felt constricted, I got a headache and my joints ached. Weird. Gary didn’t feel it at all but I definitely got a little altitude sickness. The car also had a little altitude sickness due to lack of air. We would stop to look out over a vista and then the car would have trouble starting. So Gary removed the air filter and ….. Eurekaaaaa! It worked…. Of course.

It was all worth it though because at the top we were able to view the deepest, purest & bluest lake water in the United States! Crater Lake is 5 miles wide and 1,943 feet deep which makes it one of the deepest in the world. The dramatic 2,000 foot cliffs were as interesting as the gnarled trees along the ridge line. Crater Lake at one time was a volcano which collapsed in on itself and became a lake. It was an interesting geographical structure. We drove the full 33 miles around the rim and enjoyed watching the sun cast different colors and shadows on the cliffs as it descended in the sky. We also caught a glimpse of a herd of deer. The drive up to the rim road was steep with many switchbacks and no guardrail on MY side. Mom, we would have had to medicate you on this one.

While up there we noticed a forest fire was burning in the distance. Bruno couldn’t contain himself, he immediately put his hat on and jumped into action. We didn’t see him for hours! Julia, you’ll be happy to know that Bruno is being treated well. We drove out of the park a few miles to the west to the nearest campground to set up for the night. We are staying at Diamond Lake RV Park.