Wednesday, August 22, 2007
First day of school - 2007
Here are the girls on the first day of school. I love the fact that they get so excited about the first day. I also like the fact that they like and support each other. :)
Friday, August 03, 2007
All good things...
We spent today exploring Crater Lake. I drove around the rim to the north side at 6:30 to reserve spots on the boat tour of the lake. There were only 3 cruises for today and they’re pretty popular. I got us spots on the 3:00 cruise.
I came back to camp to find Patty making breakfast (an unusual occurrence) and Jessie looking white as a ghost. We weren’t sure what was wrong with her, but we just let her sit quietly for awhile, gave here some water and eventually she felt fine and started eating. An hour later she was good as new.
We packed some lunches, piled in the car and headed back up to the rim of the crater (or Caldera as the rangers call it). We decided to take the Watchman hike up to a little lookout that’s been around for almost a century. It’s purpose has been to watch the entire forest in all directions for fires. It was about ¾ of a mile up and about 400’ of climbing. The girls did pretty well.
We hiked back down, drove a little further around the rim and stopped at a picnic table and had lunch. Then we drove to the top of the boating area. You have to hike down 1.1 miles and 1,000’. It’s a really steep trail, and it’s the only one that goes to the water around the entire rim. The girls did quite well going down.
We took the two hour boat ride on what the rangers say is the clearest lake in the water. It sure is blue and it sure is clear (and it’s cold). The basic facts the rangers teach are: Mazama mountain erupted about 7700 years ago. It blew out about ¾ of the magna underneath it. This hollowed out the mountain and the top of the mountain dropped deep into the Caldera. This left a huge hole in the ground. Over the next 500 years rain and snow filled the hole and made the lake. There are no inlets (or outlets) to/from the lake. They get an average of 44’ of snow a year. The rain and snow account for 35 billion gallons of water falling into the lake every year. The lake froze over once in the last century (in 1949). It’s the deepest lake in the US at just under 2,000 feet. Like Tahoe the lake is cold and the temperature doesn’t change much once you get a little under the surface. Below 20’ it’s 38 degrees!
When we got back the girls rushed to the ranger at the amphitheater to get their junior ranger badges. We made dinner, took showers, gassed up the car and tomorrow we’ll leave early for our probably 11 hour journey home.
It’s been a great trip. With hindsight the only significant change I would make would be to bring kayaks on the roof instead of bikes. We could have used them many of the places we camped (and I would have loved it). I found I enjoyed the places we went more than I expected. I think Patty did too.
I came back to camp to find Patty making breakfast (an unusual occurrence) and Jessie looking white as a ghost. We weren’t sure what was wrong with her, but we just let her sit quietly for awhile, gave here some water and eventually she felt fine and started eating. An hour later she was good as new.
We packed some lunches, piled in the car and headed back up to the rim of the crater (or Caldera as the rangers call it). We decided to take the Watchman hike up to a little lookout that’s been around for almost a century. It’s purpose has been to watch the entire forest in all directions for fires. It was about ¾ of a mile up and about 400’ of climbing. The girls did pretty well.
We hiked back down, drove a little further around the rim and stopped at a picnic table and had lunch. Then we drove to the top of the boating area. You have to hike down 1.1 miles and 1,000’. It’s a really steep trail, and it’s the only one that goes to the water around the entire rim. The girls did quite well going down.
We took the two hour boat ride on what the rangers say is the clearest lake in the water. It sure is blue and it sure is clear (and it’s cold). The basic facts the rangers teach are: Mazama mountain erupted about 7700 years ago. It blew out about ¾ of the magna underneath it. This hollowed out the mountain and the top of the mountain dropped deep into the Caldera. This left a huge hole in the ground. Over the next 500 years rain and snow filled the hole and made the lake. There are no inlets (or outlets) to/from the lake. They get an average of 44’ of snow a year. The rain and snow account for 35 billion gallons of water falling into the lake every year. The lake froze over once in the last century (in 1949). It’s the deepest lake in the US at just under 2,000 feet. Like Tahoe the lake is cold and the temperature doesn’t change much once you get a little under the surface. Below 20’ it’s 38 degrees!
When we got back the girls rushed to the ranger at the amphitheater to get their junior ranger badges. We made dinner, took showers, gassed up the car and tomorrow we’ll leave early for our probably 11 hour journey home.
It’s been a great trip. With hindsight the only significant change I would make would be to bring kayaks on the roof instead of bikes. We could have used them many of the places we camped (and I would have loved it). I found I enjoyed the places we went more than I expected. I think Patty did too.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Deception Pass to Crater Lake
On Tuesday we took the ferry (which was 45 minutes late) to Anacortes and then drove 15 miles to Deception Pass State Park. It was another great park where we could have spent more time. There’s a lake (Cranberry Lake) that has a beach, but we didn’t go there. There also is plenty of beach along the coast. There’s basically a small inlet between Whidbey Island and the mainland (the whole layout of the earth in this area is really interesting) and there’s a great bridge that goes over it. Deception Pass is on both sides of the bridge and therefore has lots of coast line.
We walked to the coast and the girls spent a couple hours there while I went out and got gas and groceries.
Our campsite was great and we had a great evening.
Wednesday we changed our plans slightly and instead of heading directly south we went east a little to I-5 and then headed south. It was clear that this was going to be the quickest route and Patty had really wanted to see Seattle. So instead of it saving us time, it cost us some time as tourists in Seattle. We arrived at the space needle around 10:30 and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a parking space for our 45’ rig. After succeeding at that I walked to the nearest bank to get a bunch of quarters to feed the meters we were parked in front of. We went up the space needle (pretty neat, but didn’t do much for the kids), then took the monorail to downtown and walked to Pike Place market where we had lunch. We then walked back, took the monorail back, and piled back in and started our real drive for the day.
We ended up at an RV park in Salem, OR. We got there around 6:30. We made dinner while the kids rode bikes/scooters around the park. Kate has managed to catch a cold, so she’s dragging a little. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we all get it…
Today we left Salem and headed south again. We took a (planned) detour I’ve always wanted to take – to Crater Lake. It’s a gorgeous drive up Hwy 138 out of Roseburg. It meanders along the Umpqua river which is really beautiful and looks like it would be a blast to raft someday. Then it finally climbs with a vengeance until we reached the rim, which at least according to my GPS was at 7900 feet. The suburban did a great pulling the trailer with little effort even up at altitude. It was certainly much easier than it would have been with the old trailer.
I’d never seen Crater Lake and I found it absolutely stunning. It’s gorgeous – incredibly blue and the area around it is prettier than I expected. We drove to the campground and got a nice site.
Tomorrow we plan to checkout Crater Lake in more detail and then Saturday we’re going to try to make it all the way home. If we do it will be our longest mileage day with the girls and trailer ever (by a long shot). We’ll see how it goes.
We walked to the coast and the girls spent a couple hours there while I went out and got gas and groceries.
Our campsite was great and we had a great evening.
Wednesday we changed our plans slightly and instead of heading directly south we went east a little to I-5 and then headed south. It was clear that this was going to be the quickest route and Patty had really wanted to see Seattle. So instead of it saving us time, it cost us some time as tourists in Seattle. We arrived at the space needle around 10:30 and spent about 15 minutes trying to find a parking space for our 45’ rig. After succeeding at that I walked to the nearest bank to get a bunch of quarters to feed the meters we were parked in front of. We went up the space needle (pretty neat, but didn’t do much for the kids), then took the monorail to downtown and walked to Pike Place market where we had lunch. We then walked back, took the monorail back, and piled back in and started our real drive for the day.
We ended up at an RV park in Salem, OR. We got there around 6:30. We made dinner while the kids rode bikes/scooters around the park. Kate has managed to catch a cold, so she’s dragging a little. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we all get it…
Today we left Salem and headed south again. We took a (planned) detour I’ve always wanted to take – to Crater Lake. It’s a gorgeous drive up Hwy 138 out of Roseburg. It meanders along the Umpqua river which is really beautiful and looks like it would be a blast to raft someday. Then it finally climbs with a vengeance until we reached the rim, which at least according to my GPS was at 7900 feet. The suburban did a great pulling the trailer with little effort even up at altitude. It was certainly much easier than it would have been with the old trailer.
I’d never seen Crater Lake and I found it absolutely stunning. It’s gorgeous – incredibly blue and the area around it is prettier than I expected. We drove to the campground and got a nice site.
Tomorrow we plan to checkout Crater Lake in more detail and then Saturday we’re going to try to make it all the way home. If we do it will be our longest mileage day with the girls and trailer ever (by a long shot). We’ll see how it goes.
