The Quarter Doesn't Do it Justice

You know those state quarters? Crater Lake National Park is on Oregon's. The quarter doesn't do it justice. Neither do these pictures. Neither do any pictures ever taken. But I'll share the pictures that Mom and Dad took. I don't have much else to say about them except: 1) I'm glad Mom and Dad took me before we left Oregon, and 2) I'm glad I wasn't there when it was formed.



Here is Mom, Dad, and me on the shore of the lake. We hiked down a 1.1 mile trail that descended 750 verticle feet down the side of the crater. I'm glad I can't walk yet; all the grown ups looked tired.


That is the "phantom ship," which is actually a rock formation that is left from a mini volcano that was outside of Mt. Mazama before it erupted. When Mt. Mazama collapsed, it took most of this volcano with it.They call these "the pinnacles." They are casts of "fumaroles," which were gas passages through the molten lava as it rolled down the valley. Over thousands of years, the creek below eroded the ash and lava from around the pinnacles, but the minerals that were in the gas formed these strange deposits.
After a dusty day on trails paved with volcanic ash, a baby needs a bath and a warm towel.