Month: July 2018

Last Saturday and Sunday Barb and I hiked various trails around Crater Lake. I’d been there a couple times before but hadn’t really done any hiking.

Our first hike was to The Watchman Lookout:

At over 7000 feet above sea level there was some snow but nothing blocking the trails:

The weather was wonderful with visibility probably exceeding 100 miles.

With such clear skies the water was intensely blue (this is straight from my phone camera, no color adjustments):

The incredible blue color is not new. 1853 prospectors named it “Deep Blue Lake” and in 1862 another set of prospectors named it Blue Lake. The color is because the water is extremely clear and deep. In the deepest part it is 1,943 feet deep. It is so clear that person in a submersible vehicle at the greatest depth was able to see the flag on the vehicle with only the sunlight which made it to those depths.

The island is called Wizard Island. The crater on the top of the island is called Witch’s Caldron. If you take a boat to the Island you can explore the entire island. We decided not to invest the time (the better part of a day) to go on that excursion.

From the other side of the lake we saw the island named Phantom Ship, a bald eagle, and some very tiny flowers:

There were several other geological features to be seen in the park which we visited on Sunday but the highlights as seen above can easily be viewed in a single day without strenuous hiking.

After we visited the Big Obsidian Flow Barb and I drove a few miles north to see the Lava River Cave. It is a lava tube nearly one mile long. There are no natural light sources and the only light sources are those you bring in with you. Pictures were difficult to take and those which were attempted were nearly pointless in attempting to convey the size and awesomeness of this tube.

Barb had never been in a cave before and found the experience less than enjoyable. It wasn’t claustrophobia because we didn’t get to anything particularly small and she has been in small confined spaces before without issue.

Yesterday Barb and visited the Big Obsidian Flow in central Oregon. As is the case with many volcanic fields it is somewhat other worldly. It’s a flow composed of about 25% obsidian mixed with pumice. It is an easy hike and very worthwhile.

There are huge chunks of the black natural glass all around you:

You need to be careful when stepping on it because it is very slick. You are told not to bring your dog with you on the trails because, well, broken “glass” is everywhere.

The native Americans who lived nearby used the obsidian for tools and traded it with other tribes.

Because the chemical makeup of the flow is distinguishable from other sources scientists were able to trace tools found hundreds of miles away to this flow.

Barb and I hiked on Mount Hood today. The weather was great. The air was clear enough that we could easily see Mount Jefferson over 45 miles away and Three Sisters and Broken Top (to the left of Mount Jefferson) nearly 90 miles away:

Here is the same view of the mountains with a 125 mm lens instead of a 43 mm lens:

We talked to another couple who were hiking down as we were going up. They told us that yesterday there were 60 MPH winds. We were very lucky with our date selection!

We hiked up to the the ski lift junction at just under 7000 feet elevation. I wanted to make it above 7000 feet so I went on up the hill a short distance to what my phone GPS said was 7054 feet above sea level.

My view from there:

Yes, it was July 3^rd and there were lots of skiers. Here are some more:

And here is a cropped version from the lower center of the picture above: