27. July 2022

Day 54: Crater Lake

Crater Lake

We had another day with quite some distance to cover, all the way to Portland which was roughly ~300 miles. But on thing we didn’t want to miss was Crater Lake, which was a bit more than 1 hour drive from the Rocky Point Resort, where we spent the night.

Crater Lake was created around 7700 years ago, when the Volcano Mount Mazama erupted and then collapsed. In the Lake, which is inside the crater of Mount Mazama, is Wizard Island. This is another Volcano, so it’s a Volcano inside of another Volcano :)

To get the best views, we did the Watchman Peak Trail, which is short with around 1.3 km, but quite steep. But from the top there is an incredible view of the whole crater.

On the PCT

After Crater Lake National Park, we continued on to the norther end and left the park behind. Just close after the park, there is an access to the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), so we decided to take the chance and hike a bit on it. Since I first heard of the PCT, over 11 years ago, it somehow captured me with it’s magic. Hiking ~4300 km from the Mexican Border to Canada (Or vice versa), spending 4-6 months in nature, it just sounds like a life changing adventure.

And it felt just great to walk on the same path that these people take. The stretch we hiked on was close to the middle, so the people that reached it were already for 2+ months on the trail, just impressive and so hard to imagine!

It just felt unreal, somehow the PCT was always far away in my mind, and now we were on it! And the best thing, we have another opportunity to hike more of it in the coming days :)

Btw on the picture you can see the colorful Cotopaxi fanny pack.

The rest

After the amazing Crater Lake and the short Hike on the PCT, it was time to cover all the way to Washougal, shortly after Portland. Not too much happened, we made a stop at McDonalds and had a McFlurry. We also got a second SIM, because using Hotspot all the time is a pain…

We now spend 3 nights at the Angels Rest B&B, which looks lovely so far! The owner’s aren’t home, so we will meet them tomorrow. But we had a chance to meet the chickens!