Crater Lake National Park (3) – On the Crater Lake

Yeah! We are on the water!

The cool thing about boating on the crater lake is that you can’t see any other boats, so it feels especially free and private. The cool and clean breezes blow on your face like mother’s cradles. We sing and drink the crater laker’s water on the boat, while listening to our tour guide talking about the rock formations at various places.

The lake accumulates rain and snow water, and there is no in- and out- streams. Then why crater lake is not getting fuller and spilling out after many years? The scientists suspect that there are places where the crater lake water is leaked out, and one of such places is this yellow-colored-rock area.

Minerals make colorful rocks. This overlook is called Pinnacles Overlook. It looks like a fairytale castle from a distance. After you see them on the boat, you can go up to the overlook and see them from the rim, a different perspective.

Below on the left, the rock formed stair-looking shapes. The lava was cooling down fast and formed these rocks. The middle is one of the peaks around the lake. On the right, this peak is the old mountain top that is not collapsed during the eruption and now mixed with lavas.

On the boat, you can see the wizard island in distance and also the phantom ship. The phantom ship is 400 k-years-old, much older than the crater lake (7700 years old). Scientists used rocks to date it. It was collapsed into the caldera. Now, we only see its mountain top surfacing on top of the water. It looks like a small boat from the distance, but it is as big as a 16-floor building.

You feel the power of nature and time when you get close to those old things. It makes you reflect and feel peace. It put you in the mood of meditation.

When we rode around on the boat, we see many little treasures on the lake. At some places, water has a quite different color. We found also a small waterfall, a beach, some snows and a giant drift wood that always stand (according to the tour guide).

When we came back, one side of dock is high for cliff jumping (remember how cold is the water? I had to come up every 2 minutes :)). Staffs shouted over when they see people had their goggles and swimming caps on.