Crater Lake, Oregon

Since we were having such a great time in Ashland, it was hard to get back in the car and move on - but my childhood memories of Crater Lake and ramblings of how amazing it was spurred us on. We drove an incredibly windy, mountain road up to the Manzama campground inside the park. Most of the campground was already closed, and the rest would be within the next week, so it was pretty quiet. We were surrounded by the most gorgeous trees and views of meadows and mountains. That night we did a short hike around the edge of the campground called Annie's Loop...very, very pretty, but watching the kids play around next to the cliff at the side of the trail made me a little nervous! We played in a nice fire & the kids all kept watch for bears, since we'd been warned about them being around. Luckily, no one was gobbled up during the night by any rouge bears and we got to drive up the Rim Village to actually lay eyes on the prize - Crater Lake. It was spectacular. The blue of the water is intense and clear. The blue of the sky was so pale in comparison! My favorite view was the deep green of the pines against the intense blue of the water...ahhhhh! Truman wanted to go down for a swim, but we convinced him it was a little too cold. The rangers were all very helpful since we had the only kids there -- everyone else we ran into during our travels was either retired or foreign...what a great time to travel!