Clearwater Falls, Connectivity and Crater Lake, It Really IS that Blue: The Estate Takes on Alaska

Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

August 25, 2019

A pokey slow start to the day.  

Off to the lodge up the road a couple of miles, owned by the same man who owns this campground.  We can sit there and use their Wifi all day long if we want.

 Instead of just sitting, we had lunch there, and it was good.  


What with lunch and a few more minutes, I managed to completely catch up on the blog posting.  I had the photos all done, except one, and the notes I keep each day in the “journal”, some fast and furious copy/paste and no proofing, and bam, all done.

Then we drove 138 and went waterfall hunting.  Clearwater Falls, may have been some of the prettiest falls we have seen this entire trip!  I would have been happy sitting there for a long time, till some 8 year old boy was allowed to run to the very edge of the top of the falls by his adults.  I thought for sure he was going down.  I had to leave, I could not stand watching the shenanigans.

We decided to go on to Crater Lake National Park, even tho it was late in the afternoon, like 3:30.  It was a “free” park day, and we had been reluctant to fight the crowds.  Past experience has shown us that later afternoon visits can be quite nice and quiet.  True today.  

On the way, I snapped a photo of the fire piles of dead trees, etc. It appears that there is serious thinning of overgrown, older forest areas.  I have no idea if it is for fire or just healthy forests, but, in this area there are significant areas (acres and acres) of these piles.  For some reason, many of the piles are covered in black plastic.  Why?  Have no idea.

We drove to the Rim Village area, stopping at most of the turn offs along the way.

 What they say about Crater Lake - - its all true!  The light was fabulous and the lake IS that blue!

Driving in from the North Entrance, after driving through many miles of tree lined road, it turns to a desert-like zone.

I'm a sucker for strong and different geological formations.  This one ranks well on all counts, strong, different, and just ole amazing.

And - - near the junction of the North Entrance and the "Rim Roads".

This is the 2nd photo I took of Crater Lake.  Yes, it is that blue!  Auto correct from photoshop barely changed this, it's basically straight out of my camera.  Sony III only has a haze filter.  It IS this blue!

A bit of snow is left on the right side of the photo - -

Indeed -- shapes - -

Close up of the snow - -

Yes, another photo of this dramatic formation - - you may scroll on now - - 

Look hard, see the building at the top??  This is a fire tower.  There is a hiking path near the base of this hill, we did not even think about it, the trail will take you to the fire tower, the trail is called the Watchman Peak Trail on All-Trails.  I bet the views would be spectacular.  Note, Sony III zoom was responsible for this image, the tower is about 400 feet above the road and is about a 1 mile hike to the top.

Sharp, shapes, sighhhhh

And, people being people, there were some that put their lives in danger by going past "don't go past here" signs and walking out to dangerous places for photo ops.  SIGH  And, sadly, there were families with very young children that were feeding these chipmunks.  The parents were teaching their daughter, who had to be about 5 years old, to hold her hand out very still, so the chipmunk would come take the food from her.  I would be worried about the chipmunk biting, but, not these parents. I'm still shaking my head in bewilderment.

Look at those stuffed cheek pouches - - stuffed with human food - - sighh

I noticed during our drive in via the North Entrance that there had been a fire, on the west side, that did not seem to have jumped the road to the east side.  Here are two photos, taken less than one minute from each other, first the west side, burned, then the east side, not burned.

As we head back to Diamond Lake and camp, I capture the lake, Diamond Lake.  It is a very pretty lake, just for the record.

Back at camp, we are in a new campsite, so far, it is nicer.  The other site was quite sunny, not level at all,  we could not get The Estate level and the neighbor was rank.  Just an awful human.

 New campsite we are level without any levelers at all, no neighbors close enough to be rank and trees should keep this site cooler.  I sat out until 7:45 or so, and not one skeeter.  It’s been too dry.  Oh, the internet MIGHT be a wee bit more responsive in the new site.  How’s them apples, as they ask.  



Fire danger is “High”.  

All in all this has been a wonderful day, the weather was favorable, skies blue, the Clearwater Falls were some of the prettiest we have seen all summer and Crater Lake is all they say it is and more, and it is BLUE as BLUE can be.

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