Took a detour at Costco and ended up at Crater Lake

It's the 23rd of July. I started out today with a trip to Costco topping the "to do" list but lo and behold, I now find myself surrounded, not by masses of bargain shoppers, but by dark green mountainsides topped with snow covered peaks.  Ironically here in valley of all this cool, lush beauty is a barren flatland.

I reach down to pick up one of the many rocks that fill this valley floor. Anticipating the feel of its heaviness, as I lift it I'm surprised to find it light as a feather.   Pumice. Rocks peppered with multitudes of holes.  Left-overs from some ancient eruption. The area I now stand in is aptly called the Pumice Desert.  On the info plaque I read that one time pumice filled this spot to a depth of 100 feet, not the most fertile habitat for plant life. However, here and there the ashy desert is broken by an occasional brave sapling struggling to survive and clumps of a grassy like plants with little yellow flowers.   

This  pumice-filled landscape is the welcome mat for the entrance to Crater Lake. 
Crater Lake is exactly what its name states, a lake in a crater.  It is the lake that fills the top of Mount Mazama where that ancient volcano once erupted and then collapsed in on itself (caldera).  This isn't just any ole' lake you'll find no jet skis or catfish jumpin'. In fact Crater Lake forms a very striking contrast to the wasteland I just came through. In the spot where once boiled and churned molten hot lava, now rests a placid pristine body of water colored the most vivid, intense shade of indigo I've every seen outside of a doctored Polaroid pic. 

This body of water is the deepest in the US (1943 feet) and has been fed over the many years from precipitation and snowmelt. In the interior of the lake is a small black island shaped somewhat like a witch's hat and called Wizard Island.  It was formed from a second eruption.  Two for the price of one....kind of like a volcano in a volcano.  If you look through the binocs you can see the caldera at the top of it too. 

The rim of Crater Lake is paved so we can drive the entire perimeter, but only in the summer months.  This is one drive where you don't have to strain and keep saying "I wish I could see, I bet the view is great over there."  They have sprinkled many spots to park and snap all along the drive.   
The real treat (as if there was need for more) is the mountain lodge built on the south side of the rim.  Around dinner time the back porch is opened for viewers and fortuitously, I was in the right place at the right time to snag a couple of rockers.  Needless to say, it was really hard to drag myself away from that chair, that view, and and that special beverage of my choice to make the 3 hour drive back to Eugene. 
By far this "side trip" provided a  much more enjoyable way to spend my time than fighting the shoppers to the bargains at  Costco.