Crater Lake National Park (5) – Rim to Rim Overlooks

Crater lake national park has one road to drive, and it is called “rim to rim”, a road around the lake with many great overlooks and hiking trails. One of my favorite overlook places is at the rim visitor center. We went both day time and sunset twilight time. During the day, the views are astonishing. Even just with my phone, I can capture postcard quality scenery.

It certainly quiets the mind and invites you to merge into the nature. Evening is romantic, you crave to blend into the trees and disappear into the nature with your lover. Let the sky and earth witness your kisses and intimacy, no interruptions 🙂

Different flavors of lake views.

Everyone’s favorite overlook must be the watchman overlook. It is a very big overlook place with great mountain looks and lake looks. The trailhead of watchman lookout trail is 2 minutes walking away.

Look at this exciting peak below!! Since we entered the park, I have been admiring this handsome peak and looking forward to hiking the trail. While everyone in our group was tired in the late afternoon, I went up by myself. It is a 1.7 miles easy walk, not very busy. There is this watchman tower at the peak and the wizard island is a step away. Many people hang out on the top and breathe into the views 🙂

Cloudcap overlook is our favorite as well, because it “feels” the best. You will need to drive downhill for a mile from the rim.

Then here comes a vast open area facing the lake. Under the warm sun, you sit here, dangle your legs and feel the strong wind coming in — it is relaxing like at the beach. I have taken many pictures for myself to record my natural smiles, and relax and light feelings here.

This is the most windy place on the lake. During winter, it dumps feets of snow here. The trees are shaped like “flags” due to the wind effects, so people call them “flag trees”.

Remember the stair rocks we saw from the bottom of the lake?! It is called Devil’s Backbone. This overlook near the Merriam Point is the best place to watch it. A nice walk out to see the island and also some ground squirrels.

Along the east-rim drive, you can stop at some trail heads and waterfall overlooks. We stopped at the Castle Crest Wildflower Trail. This trail follows a creek and we saw many wildflowers and green meadows. The sound of water accompanies us the whole time like meditation music, just something different from lake views.

The pinnacle and phantom ship outlooks are easier to access from the east-rim drive. But west-rim and east-rim drives are connected and form a full circle of 33 miles. Driving along, you can finish exploring the overlooks and short trails within a day. One of the two visitor centers steel information center has videos for you to learn more about the park.