Ride Oregon

We had anticipated the usual quiet start to the day, but were surprised to find that the large parking area beside the campground store was being turned into a stop for cyclists - 2200 of them! Many many volunteers were setting up food stations and recyling areas. It was the Ride Oregon seven day ride, day two; day one they'd started in the town of Bly, and day two they left Fort Klamath and rode to Prospect, with the 33 mile rim road around Crater Lake optional.

The thought of sharing the road with 2200 cyclists was rather daunting, so we found out which direction they were headed, and went in the opposite one, so that when we met them on the narrow rim road, they'd be on the other side of the road. Luckily they were going clockwise, which was perfect as we hadn't been on the east side of the lake yet. We saw a few recumbant bikes, and several tandems.
Then we headed out of the Park, turned East on route 138, and headed north on 97 to Sunriver, south of Bend.

Crater Lake Oregon

The smoke from various wildfires has made it hard to even see across the lake the last few weeks, we were told, so we were lucky to have a rare clear day at Crater Lake National Park. After viewing a short film on the history of the park at the visitor's center, we went up to the lodge, built in 1915, and had lunch in the dining room. From the windows on either side of the room we could see Crater lake to the north, and Klamath Lake to the south.
Then it was time to head to the start of the Cleetwood Trail, the only one that takes you down to the edge of the lake; we caught our boat there - it was a ranger tour of the entire lake, and gave us a totally different perspective. Of course while the walk down (the mile long trail drops 700 feet) was easy, the hike back up took longer!

But we made it to the Watchman overlook in time to join the last ranger led Sunset hike of the season. Ranger Darby took us up the trail, stopping to point out marmot habitat and black and white nutcracker birds. As the sun went down and the light became more and more beautiful, we climbed higher, right up to the top, to the 8000+ foot fire lookout tower. It has windows all around, as well as a rustic walkway, so you can see in all directions; it gave us yet another view of the lake.