A Trip to Crater Lake

Finally we were going to Crater Lake, a dream come true moment for us because we were planning to go to Crater Lake from the beginning of the last year but due to some or the other reasons we could not accomplish it. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA, about 1950 feet deep and perhaps the most pristine on the earth. 

It is about 350 miles from our place (Redmond, Washington), so we decided to begin the trip on Friday evening and return by Monday early morning. We had booked the hotel at Roseburg and Reedsport for Friday and Saturday night respectively. We were 7 members together, so we had booked a 7- seater Dodge car. We started our journey at about 6.30 pm. After driving for almost 3 -4 hours we stopped at MacDonald's for tea and had upma (Indian dish) for dinner. As we are not a big fan of pizza and burgers, every time we go out we carry homemade food for lunch and dinner. Next day at 2 am we reached our hotel at Roseburg. Since it was mid night, the person at the reception was sleeping and he got up for the sound of the bell that rang as we entered the reception. We felt pity on him. After taking the room keys from him we went to our rooms and slept for some while. We got up at 5.30 am (we got only 3 hours to rest, we compromise sleep in all our trips), had breakfast at hotel and started from there at 8 am.

At about 9.30 we reached Diamond Lake and took a break there. The lake was beautiful with mountains in the background. Since it was peak summer all the snow on the mountains had melted except at the tip. We took some photos over there and then headed towards our main destination. The drive was scenic but it was pretty warm outside.

Diamond Lake

It was 10 am when we reached the Crater Lake National Park and we stopped at first scenic point where we caught the first view the Crater Lake. We were fascinated by the intense blue color of the lake. The intense blue color symbolizes the purity of the lake. We took photos and we drove further to get the better view of the lake. We will be driving around the lake and there are many scenic points on the way where we can capture the beautiful view of the lake. We stopped at about 5 scenic points and each view left us spellbound. The blue color of the lake and its purity was hypnotizing. The lake is surrounded by mountains from all the sides.

Crater Lake

The view is really mesmerizing. Looking at the lake I felt as if the lake is taking away all the negativity from me and inducing more strength in me. I felt a kind of freshness in myself. The purity of the lake cleared my heart and mind from all the pessimist thoughts. We could not take our sight away from the lake. We sat for some time enjoying its beauty.

Enjoying the view

The lake features two islands: Wizard Island and Phantom ship Island.  At one point a old lady called us to show a log floating in the lake and said that it is floating there for over a century. We thanked the lady for sharing the information, if she would not have told us we would have missed that thing. After searching in the internet I got to know that it was full sized tree, which is now a log that has been bobbling vertically and the low temperature of the water has slowed the decomposition of the wood. This log is hence known as "Old Man of the Lake". During winter snow on the mountains adds extra beauty to the lake. We missed that.

Wizard and Phantom Ship Island

According to me nature is the only thing that shares with us whatever it has without any expectation. It enchants us with its beauty and in return it gets nothing. We humans have a lot to learn from nature - to be selfless, to share and care etc. So it's our duty to safeguard and protect the nature and preserve it for future. 

After driving around the Crater Lake we came back to Diamond Lake and had our lunch there. We walked around the lake and relaxed for a while after lunch. It was 2.30 in the afternoon, we still had a lot of time to wander. So we decided to go to Wild life Safari located at Winston, Oregon where the guests can drive through safari park. It's a 600 acre park and animals freely wander over there. We reached there at 4 pm. There were different kind of animals like Tiger, Cheetah, Zebra, African Elephant, Byson, Big Horned cow (don't know actual name) hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, White spotted deer, Ostrich and many more. Except for bears, tigers, cheetahs and elephants all other animals were allowed to wander freely without any cage or fences. They were not at all scared seeing cars and human beings. Ostrich and deer came very close to our car and as we opened window they were about to put their head inside the car. We got little scared but they did not cause any harm. May be they thought we are feeding them. We just took their photos and returned. It took about 1 hour to drive through the safari. 

Wild Life Safari

Then we started driving towards our hotel at Reedsport. We drove for about half an hour and we noticed that we were about to run out of fuel; Fuel gauge in the car was warning us that we could only drive around 50 miles. We could not find any gas station nearby. In order to save the fuel we switched off the A.C and opened car windows. The roads were curvy and we were driving slowly so that it will limit the use of brakes to certain extent and help us save some fuel. That was the first time we were following the speed rules so perfectly!!!. As we were driving we saw a gas station nearby. We were relieved. But as we reached closer to it we found that it was closed and meanwhile our fuel gauge stopped indicating how much fuel was remaining (may be fuel was almost over). We had already done many such crazy things in our trip before and this was just another one. There will be at least one adventure in our every trip. It just happens!. It was evening around 7 pm. We drove further for about half an hour and luckily we found fuel station. We fed our hungry car and reached hotel at about 10 pm. Our next day plan was to go to sand dunes, drive ATV's and then return back to our home. We had chapati for our dinner and went to sleep after that.

The next day morning we got up at 7.30 and started around 10. We were driving towards Oregon dunes, North Bend. We went to Steve's ATV Rentals, an ATV rental service in Coos county, Oregon. 

We booked three 1 seater ATV's and two 2 seater ATV's. They gave us instructions and showed a small video on how to drive safely. We were very much excited. Driving on sand was an amazing experience. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes and are longer on the upflow side. It will be very thrilling to drive there and also you have to be very careful. We had initially reserved for one hour but we had to replace one of the ATV due to some issues and it took time for that. So we extended for another hour.

Driving ATV on sand dunes

As we were enjoying the drive on sand, it so happened that one of our friend's ATV got flipped; his daughter was also inside the ATV along with him. He was taking the turn and there is chance of getting flipped if we are in speed while turning. We ran towards them and fortunately nothing had happened. They were all right. Only the ATV was little damaged.

 

Flipped ATV

We got nice scoldings from one of the rental service person. He had already warned our group because one of our friend was not wearing the helmet properly and this time we flipped the ATV itself, so he got very angry. Meanwhile our reserved time was over and we were about to leave the sand dunes to return the ATV's. Suddenly the service person came near my husband furiously. He had a body builder personality and the way he came near to us, I thought he was going to throw my husband out of the ATV!. I was scared. He came near us and shouted at my husband for not wearing the seat belt. My husband had removed the seat belt when he got down to help our friend who fell from ATV and then he forgot to wear it again. The service person's anger was obvious because it was our fault not following the rules they had instructed. We were anxious after all these things and all our excitement had vanished in no time. We returned our ATV's and were charged for damaging one of them. 

This became the second unplanned and unexpected adventure of the trip!.

It was 2.30 in the afternoon. We were very hungry after this great adventure!. We stopped at the picnic area nearby and had our lunch. We relaxed for an hour there and drove through scenic PCH (Highway 101) route while heading towards our home. It is considered one of the most scenic drives in the world. This highway runs along most of the Pacific coastline and we will see stunning coastal views, seaside villages and untouched forests.

Scenic PCH

In the mid of the way we stopped at Tillamook cheese factory. It was around 7.30 pm when we reached there. The factory offers self-guided tours with tasty cheese samples, interactive kiosks, factory viewing windows, a cafe and Tillamook creamery with different flavors of yummy ice cream. We tasted some cheese samples and had ice cream which was really very tasty. That was the first time me and my husband liked an ice cream in U.S!. The taste was close to our Indian ice creams.

Tillamook Factory

After spending for about one hour in Tillamook we started our journey towards home again. We had our dinner in the middle of our way and reached home around 2 'o clock in the early morning. 

Finally, all I can say is it was a very fun-filled and memorable trip!.