Day 2 – The Lake & The Rain

After a late start, AA, my apartment mate G (who’s working this summer on the Park’s first bear project to count the number in the Crater Lake) and I left our VIP housing to take our first gander at the Lake. Shortly after we pilled into the oversized SUV, the skies opened up and it proceeded to pour – it was so heavy it was like driving through a waterfall (no, I did not actually drive through a waterfall). As I drove the rest of my posse intelligently slipped on their extra layers and waterproof pants; unfortunately, I lacked the foresight to bring any of those items - my destiny was one met with wet pants. However, nothing was going to stop us from seeing the Lake; although the fog and clouds certainly tried by obscuring ½ of the Lake from view.

Despite being rained on in 40 degree temperatures, it was AWESOME and I can hardly wait to go back during a warm and clear day.





After getting thoroughly soaked standing at an overlook, we decided to hike the only open trail. With over 90 miles of trails in the park, only 89 miles were clear of snow and were hike-able. Dripping wet (well, I was because they had on rain gear) and in the cold rain we began our short hike. In only a mile, we managed to climb cliffs to about 7,000 feet, hike through a cloud so thick we nearly lost sight of one another and spot our first sightings of the Park’s famous wild flowers.



It was so steep – a 1,500 foot almost sheer drop & so cloudy that we couldn’t see the lake

After a thorough soaking from the waterfall of rain and coming across 3 feet of snow completely covering the trail for over a 100 yards (it was like a mini wall of white), we made turned around and hiked back down through the cloud.

As fate would have it, it stopped raining, became sunny and warmed into the 50’s the instant we returned to our VIP lodging – that didn’t really matter though, we hiked the only mile of trail not covered by a wall of snow.