Road trip - Day 3

Ashland, OR to Eugene, OR

From the endpoints, it looks like we did not go very far on our third day on the road. We spent the day at Crater Lake National Park. Our morning had a false start when, an hour away from Ashland up highway 62, I realized I had left my camera battery charger charging a battery in our hotel room. I told Tom we *had* to go back because there is no way I could do the rest of the trip without that! So, two hours delayed, we arrived in Crater Lake at lunchtime. We could not have asked for more beautiful weather and the lake looked absolutely stunning.



The water really is that blue. There are a couple of reasons but the biggest factors are the lake's depth, nearly 2,000 ft (making it the deepest lake in the country) and the that no rivers empty in to the lake so the water is amazingly clean and free of sediment and such.





I have not been to Crater Lake in nearly 20 years. I have memories of being amazed by the views as a teenager. Sadly, the impressiveness of the place was lost on the girls.



Crater Lake NP is also known for wildflowers. It was not the right time of year to see them all in bloom but we did find a few flowers.



We took a hike to Watchman Peak, which is used during fire season to watch for forest fires. Tom and I were huffing and puffing and commenting that we sealevel adjusted people can't breathe very well at 8,000 ft. Laura made it all the way up without being carried. I was amazed. The views from the top were incredible.









We took highway 232 to 138 and then back to I-5. We decided to stop for the night in Eugene.