Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Nothing Says July Like 45 Degrees
The sea was angry that day; like an old man trying to return his soup at the deli.-Tom (borrowing from Seinfeld which was borrowing from Hemingway)
So last night we probably pushed the driving thing too far as we didn’t get to our campsite until 10:30 or so. We had thought about getting a hotel, but we didn’t. By the time we started setting up the tent, I think we both wish we would have just got the hotel! Then it rained in the night. It’s nice and dry in the tent (rain fly does its job, don’t even have to worry about touching the edge of the tent) but it makes it a bit of a mess to put away. We had breakfast at a little place on the way to Crater Lake this morning.
Which brings us to our first big adventure of the day: Crater Lake. We had all kinds of plans and options. Well, really just two: do we hike down to the water or hike up an old volcano to get a bird’s eye view of everything. We finally settle on the later, with Tom vaguely recalling that somebody had suggested that hike to him before we left. The drive to the park was very reminiscent of a Smoky Mountain vista: the road we were on paralleled a river that alternating from calm to bubbling over rocks and (very) small waterfalls while all around us were thick forests of pine trees draped in moss and fog alike. This is not a stationary fog, it’s one that seems to grow and shrink like it had a breath of its own.
Well, if the fog was born from anywhere, it must have been Crater Lake. As we drew nearer our visibility lessened and the temperature dropped. For people who have spent the better part of the last few weeks with temperatures around 100, 45 degrees is QUITE the shock to the system. I had to get out my blanket when we got back in the car! The unfortunate side effect of the weather is that it hampered our view of Crater Lake. The deep blue color for which it is famous only seemed evident on the edges; the middle was too busy reflecting the silver-white of the low hanging cloud that dominated our view. Though ours may not have been the traditional view of Crater Lake, we were privy to the appearance and disappearance of Wizard Island as the fog bank would alternate between covering the whole vista and pulling back for a peek-a-boo moment of wonder.
Where Olympic’s rainforest failed to live up to expectations, California’s Redwoods definitely live up to the hype. It is absolutely awe-inspiring to stand in a grove of 200-300 feet tall trees as they tower over you. I found myself walking with my head all the way back for much of the visit (which, if you know my propensity for clumsiness while doing ordinary things like walking, was a dangerous position to be in!). The trees also had a solidness that it seemed like even the biggest of the giants in the rainforest was lacking. There are wider trees in California, but the tallest are in this area. Hopefully we'll see some more monsters in Yosemite. All in all, I’d recommend it if you ever get the chance.
We stayed in a hotel tonight in Eureka, CA and tomorrow we’re going to continue down the coast to San Francisco. So far the coastal drive in California has been WAY better than Oregon…you can actually see the coast here, not just glimpses of it through buildings.
So last night we probably pushed the driving thing too far as we didn’t get to our campsite until 10:30 or so. We had thought about getting a hotel, but we didn’t. By the time we started setting up the tent, I think we both wish we would have just got the hotel! Then it rained in the night. It’s nice and dry in the tent (rain fly does its job, don’t even have to worry about touching the edge of the tent) but it makes it a bit of a mess to put away. We had breakfast at a little place on the way to Crater Lake this morning.
Which brings us to our first big adventure of the day: Crater Lake. We had all kinds of plans and options. Well, really just two: do we hike down to the water or hike up an old volcano to get a bird’s eye view of everything. We finally settle on the later, with Tom vaguely recalling that somebody had suggested that hike to him before we left. The drive to the park was very reminiscent of a Smoky Mountain vista: the road we were on paralleled a river that alternating from calm to bubbling over rocks and (very) small waterfalls while all around us were thick forests of pine trees draped in moss and fog alike. This is not a stationary fog, it’s one that seems to grow and shrink like it had a breath of its own.
Well, if the fog was born from anywhere, it must have been Crater Lake. As we drew nearer our visibility lessened and the temperature dropped. For people who have spent the better part of the last few weeks with temperatures around 100, 45 degrees is QUITE the shock to the system. I had to get out my blanket when we got back in the car! The unfortunate side effect of the weather is that it hampered our view of Crater Lake. The deep blue color for which it is famous only seemed evident on the edges; the middle was too busy reflecting the silver-white of the low hanging cloud that dominated our view. Though ours may not have been the traditional view of Crater Lake, we were privy to the appearance and disappearance of Wizard Island as the fog bank would alternate between covering the whole vista and pulling back for a peek-a-boo moment of wonder.
Where Olympic’s rainforest failed to live up to expectations, California’s Redwoods definitely live up to the hype. It is absolutely awe-inspiring to stand in a grove of 200-300 feet tall trees as they tower over you. I found myself walking with my head all the way back for much of the visit (which, if you know my propensity for clumsiness while doing ordinary things like walking, was a dangerous position to be in!). The trees also had a solidness that it seemed like even the biggest of the giants in the rainforest was lacking. There are wider trees in California, but the tallest are in this area. Hopefully we'll see some more monsters in Yosemite. All in all, I’d recommend it if you ever get the chance.
We stayed in a hotel tonight in Eureka, CA and tomorrow we’re going to continue down the coast to San Francisco. So far the coastal drive in California has been WAY better than Oregon…you can actually see the coast here, not just glimpses of it through buildings.
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