Crater Lake National Park (1) – Cleetwood Cove Trail

Crater lake is the deepest lake in US. It is pure and clean like an exotic magic kingdom. Its water is so clear that you can see through it 100-120 feet at many places. When we were on the boat, our guide directly filled our water bottles with the lake water 🙂

One of the coolest trails I have walked is the Cleetwood Cove Trail. That’s the only path that you can hike down to the Crater Lake. Starting next year, this trail will be closed for maintenance. I guess this news makes it is more busy. Although the parking lot is huge, many cars are spilled on the road with a very long line, quite a funny scene. It’s better to get there in the early morning.

The trail is 1.1 miles with about 700 feet elevation drop. It’s almost like you take the elevators down on your feet 🙂 10 minutes walking, the views are completely different from the ones on the top, and 20 minutes down, you are already near the water. Maybe it’s like a magic when you go down, but wait till you hike up :). I felt the most unpainful way is “don’t stop” and keep walking. I made it in 20 some minutes. The trail is easy to walk but is dusty, so for non-experience hikers—- consider to prepare a mask and save water for your climb-up.

There are boat tours you can book. It’s very popular, so book it months earlier. Some boats just tour around lake, but the one we booked also dropped people at the Wizard island for a few hours where you can hike. It’s like 8 am o’clock you are at the trail head of Cleetwood Clove, and 2 or 3pm in the afternoon you will finish the boat tour. Many people are around the dock swimming and playing the water for a long time. The water is co clear, but very cold 🙂 . There is a small station which has trash cans and bathrooms.

Crater Lake is a caldera where the lava went out and the mountain collapsed into its emptied magma chamber. The rain waters started accumulated in the giant craters. There are no creeks or rivers that bring in waters then the years of rain and snow waters accumulated and formed a very large body of water. That’s why the water is co clean. There is one giant island in the lake called the wizard island. It is a cinder cone formed through several eruptions after giant crater is formed. On top of the wizard island is another crater that you can hike down.