Crater lake was definitely on my list. But as always we stopped along the way to take in some sites.
Lowell Covered Bridge
You couldn’t drive through this covered bridge but there is a nice picnic area and a few fellas fishing in the lake. So we stopped to have lunch and stretch her legs.
And another tunnel!
Diamond Peak
Crater Lake
We arrived at the park kind of late in the day but I thought we would try and see some of the park.
Wizard island is one of the other volcanoes inside the crater.
We entered the park from the south and chose to drive counter clockwise around the crater. Which means we were on the outside edge with a shear drop to our right.
It was a bit of a scary drive.
I drove down to see the Pinnacles.
I was really trying to get to the east side of the crater to capture the sunset.
The campground that I had planned to stay at I was on able to locate on my way to crater Lake. So, even though it’s not allowed to park overnight in the park I found a trail head parking lot that was back off the road and stayed there overnight. So, I was able to get up early and capture the sunrise as well from the west side of crater lake over wizard island.
It was too late when I arrived and too early when I left so, I was unable to stop at the visitor center for the park.
We headed West again and made a few stops along the way.
Rogue Gorge
This was a beautiful spot with a nice hike along the gorge with nice stream and waterfalls.
This was very unusual!
Natural Bridge
This was kind of an unusual spot. I know at O’leno state park in Florida the Santa Fe river goes underground and emerges again several miles away. The river here does the same thing only it’s just a few feet.
Cape Blanco
Back to the coast! I wanted to stay on the coast so I chose this park which was very nice and right on the beach. There was also a lighthouse close by.
There was a small fee to tour the lighthouse all the way to the top. The view was magnificent. And I saw a critter I had never seen before.
Porcupine!
The stairwell was shipped to the site and each stair is numbered so they would know how to put it back together. The volunteers were very knowledgeable and I learned about lighthouse hosts who stay for free at the campground and volunteer at the lighthouse 20 hours a week.
I met two young couples from Australia and told them about the porcupine.
Driving south from the cape it became a complete white out. Fog was so thick you couldn’t see the coast. We stopped at the arch but couldn’t see a thing!
Next is California!!!