Oregon's all blowed up good, historically

Spent the last two days at Crater lake National Park, one of those places you just have to see, if for the shear unexpectedness of it. You just drive around in non-descript semi-interesting semi-mountainous area of western Oregon, drive up to what looks like another nondescript ridge, and... whoops.. 800' cliff down into a 1000' deep lake -- with a mini volcano in it. It's all very scenic, and I did play tourist and take the two-hour boat tour of the lake itself (after a 65 storey hike down to the boat launch.)

To finish off this morning I hiked Mt. Scott, the highest "peak" in the park, which is an old side cone for the main mountain. I tried to get up early enough to catch the sunrise but, well, that didn't happen. I did make it there early enough to avoid the gaggle of 40 middle schoolers disgorged upon the trailhead by some sort of school event. I'm surprised the lawyers even allow that, since this trail (and most others) you are a trip/step away from death, since there's 45deg or more falls in every direction. But anyway... Mt Scott was good, not crowded, and provided a full view of the crater, so I hope the pictures turn out.

Oh, in case you didn't know, Crater Lake is a calderea that formed when about 4000' of mounted collapsed in on itself after blowing its top 7000 years ago. We're good for another few thousand before it begins to build up again, apparently. The entire area from Crater Lake northeast to Yellowstone is all one big volcanic mess, apparently. I certainly had not even a vague awareness of what "southeastern Oregon" was, other than I had to drive through it and there were no interstates. Parts of it are very scenic, in the badlands sense. One very scenic route that wasn't mention in any of the maps was Route 20 down the Malheur River from Juntura to Harper Oregon. Well worth it.

And don't worry about the lack of interstates. The Route 26/20 combo from Bend to Boise are straight, wide, and recently paved. That was most of my day. I probably won't update for a few more days as tomorrow I head up into the Sawtooth Range area and overnight at Craters of the Moon (yes, more volcanic stuff) and then who knows where.