Oregon - Crater Lake

Salt Creek Falls (286’), just west of Willamette Pass summit.

The fastest route back to Tahoe is through Mt. Shasta City, but Nancy had never been to Crater Lake, so we decided to take the scenic route home.

Our first stop was Salt Creek Falls, located a few miles west of the Willamette Pass summit on Highway 58.

I hadn’t been to the falls in many years, so I didn’t realize that there is now a park there. Previously, there was just a short dirt trail to the falls from a pull-off on the highway.

Willamette Pass Ski Area.

When we ski in Oregon, we usually go to Willamette Pass Ski Area, located at the summit of Willamette Pass, at 5120'.

The snow is wet and the best runs have long, long run-outs, but it’s close to Eugene and it has the only FIS-sanctioned speed skiing course in America.

If you come up on a powder day during the week, you’ll get freshies all day long.

They just put in a gondola last year. This is a big improvement on the old way to the top, which was a two-lift shuttle.

We started skiing here in 1969, when all they had was a Poma platter lift and a rope tow. Now it’s practically a destination resort.

A view of Wizard Island from the west.

The trail switchbacks down to the Cleetwood Cove boat dock.

We reached Crater Lake around noon and immediately drove to the Cleetwood Cove trailhead to hike down to the lake. The trail is about a mile long, drops 700’, and is used to access boat tours.

After hiking down to Cleetwood Cove we went swimming. ¡Es muy frio!

It was a hot, hazy day, with the haze probably coming from forest fires. We jumped in the water to cool off, and then had a nice lunch of leftover pizza.

A beautiful day at the lake.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S., and one of the clearest in the world; the visibility is about 140 feet. The water is an amazingly vivid shade of blue, even bluer than Lake Tahoe.

The lake level is read from this shack.

If you come early, you can get a boat ride ($23.50) out to Wizard Island and spend the day there. There’s also a number of trails on the rim that climb up to 2,000 feet above the lake.

Crater Lake from the Sinnott Memorial Overlook at the Rim Village.

We still had a long drive back to Tahoe, so we had to leave too soon. It would be nice to spend a week there, hiking and biking around.