7/25/2019 Crater Lake, Oregon. Hiking at 7000’ elevation

Sandy and I decided to hike down to the gorgeous blue water of Crater Lake.  The Park Rangers say it is 1 mile down and 10 miles to get back to the top.  They also say that it is the trail that has the most accidents.  Simply due to the strenuous upward climb and the heat of the summer.  Many hike down, but are not able to make the climb out due to:

- Elevation - Do not understand the effect of the higher elevation on your  body

-Dehydration

- Lack of nourishment (food)

-  Out of shape   

We both carried backpacks with plenty of water/food.  Of course I over packed just in case, but paid for it due to the extra weight.

Not only did we do the hike down to the lake, we also took a Park boat on the lake over to Wizard Island and climbed to its summit to view the caldera.  It took us 1 hour, 15 minutes to make the climb to the caldera.  It was a strenuous hike.  The trail was approximately 3’ wide and if you stumbled or misplaced your foot down you would plummet.  This was definitely one of those hikes where you constantly watch where your next step will be.  At an age of 60+ I am happy that we were still able to make the climb 

After returning to the Park boat, the Park Ranger gave us a guided tour around the lake.

Once we finished our guided tour of the lake we then had the make the 1 mile ascent back to the car (again this is the climb that the Park Rangers say feels like a 10 mile climb).  It took us another 1 hr, 15 minutes to climb out.  The day pushed us to our limit.  Sandy recalled a quote from a friend of mine (from another hike a few years ago) as we crested the top “that’s the last time we climb out of that stinkin hole”. :-)

I am glad we did it, but we won’t do it again.

I will say that Crater Lake is gorgeous as you can tell by the attached pictures.  To me, it is definitely worth seeing once.  I don’t know that we will be back.  I think that Sandy and I have traveled to so many places that we are becoming very particular on choosing our favorite locations to return for another visit.