I love the 4th of July in America. It almost always means great weather, good food outdoors, and happy people celebrating the good things about being an American – freedom, opportunity and a beautiful land. Fireworks and hot dogs, lemonade and picnics, beaches and flags waving, for me it i s a holiday of laughter, sunshine and delicious treats.
This year R and I drove up to Crater Lake, Oregon, with some of our friends who live in our building in San Francisco. We have a strange/amazing Melrose Place-thing going on in our building – we have become very close friends with several of our neighbor couples, which makes socializing with awesome friends as easy as strolling down the hallway. So, 3 of these couply-friends joined us in Crater Lake for the 4th. We drove up Thursday night after work and stayed in Ashland, Oregon, a quick pit stop to break up the long drive to the national park. Unbeknownst to me, Ashland is quite the destination – a quaint, all American little town (perfect for the 4th holiday!) known for its Shakespeare performances in the summertime. We didn’t have enough time for Richard the Third, but we were able to pop into a couple of the little books shops on Main Street and of course the Ashland Fly Shop. R loves fishing and I love books, so it had to be done.
We stayed at the Green Springs Inn & Cabins and would highly recommend it if you are in the area. Even more highly recommended is the breakfast at the Green Springs Inn, which was amazing. 
From Ashland, we drove north to Crater Lake, a beautiful lake hidden away from the world. Of course we made mandatory snack breaks for ice cream on the way up (and the way back!).
You can’t see the lake until you are literally at its rim – it is a collapsed volcano crater with shores that are 2,000 feet steep. It was Mount Mazama that collapsed to form Crater Lake over 7,000 years ago. There is only one way to access the lake, down a very steep well beaten path, which we noticed was pretty consistently underestimated by many of the people climbing up and down the trail. We passed by a number of unfortunate twisted ankles and slip + falls. Flip flops will never be appropriate hiking shoes, guys!
Wizard Island
The lake is a beautiful deep blue, surrounded by rocky shores topped with evergreen pine trees. There is an island in the middle of Crater Lake – Wizard Island – which itself has a crater in the middle of it. A crater in a crater.
We stayed at the Crater Lake Lodge, in the national park itself, which was my first experience staying at the main lodge in a national park. The rooms were plenty spacious and while nothing fancy, they were perfect for what we needed – a comfy place to sleep. Like most national park lodges I’ve seen, there was a huge gathering area on the main floor of the lodge where guests can mingle and relax. We spent our evenings watching the sunset on the porch behind the lodge, and our after-dinner hours drinking wine and playing Mexican Train Dominoes in the lodge lobby – a new favorite pastime!
Friday was a day for lounging on the rocks along the lake, soaking up the sun and fishing for trout.
Part 2 To Come…
Photos: J.Swig, L. Lampert/L2Method, E. Tausend, K. Koptish
BY Jackie
