July 21, Day 8 was Crater Lake day for us.
We unhooked and left the trailer at the camp to take the short drive to the north Entrance Station of Crater Lake National Park. Being a Friday morning, the “gate wait” wasn’t terrible, only about 30 minutes.
And then, to be immediately greeted by the gate Ranger loudly exclaiming, “Greeting Yosemite folks!” She quickly followed up by adding she has the same Yosemite employee decal on her truck. In a quick interaction, we shared that we both left Yosemite in 2018. She pretty much waved us through without looking at any identification or payment. I later seemed to remember working at the Yose El Portal Entrance Station. The decal pass expired at the end of 2020, but for some reason I’ve left it on. In our recent trip back to Yosemite, the gate Ranger there also waved us through without getting a form of payment or checking my NPS senior pass. Maybe past membership still had some perks.
I set the bar low for Crater Lake, and it was about right. The history is really rich. The deepest lake in North America and no water flows in or out by streams. It’s all rain and snowmelt that evaporates or gets soaked into the porous ground under it. The Entrance Station flier has some cool geological and native peoples history, including a number of sets of woven sandals were found in a void encapsulated by lava, indicating natives were in the area when the volcano blew approximately 7,000 years ago. Insect sex always spices up the information too.
We returned to Diamond Lake for a second night of quiet rest. Parfait was busy being on Red Alert for chipmunks as they passed through the camp. It was hilarious at times watching her.
It was also nice to have South Shore Pizza and Ice Cream across the street. We highly recommend both products.
