We spent nice 2 days in Crater Lake. That was long drive - about 7 hours though beautiful Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR, lakes and mountains. One of the top picks on Highway 58 was about 6,000 feet. I liked Mazama Campground - you can put tent on the grass, they allow wood fire - we enjoyed our campfire. For the first time we saw Animal-proof storage. On July 13Th Mama and I went driving around the lake and we made a lot of stops and took a lot of pictures - one of the gorgeous place on Earth!!!
Unfortunately we didn't have cellphone reception and for 2 days we had no contact with relatives, and on Saturday on the way to Vortex we've got message that my cousin Genya died in car accident and we turned back to pack our tent and stuff.
First stop - Multnomah Falls, dropping 611 feet in tiers of 542 feet and 69 feet, is Oregon's best. You can't visit this one and help but let your jaw hang down to your belly button, amazed at the raw force, and sheer height of the falls. Postcards speckle gift shops all over northwest Oregon, photographers come from afar to take pictures. This is, if you haven't already figured out, the most popular waterfall in the Northwest. As to the claim that this is the 4th tallest waterfall in the Nation, not even close.
After checking in Econo Lodge (the cheapest, the noisest and the worst hotel we have ever stayed - not more 2-stars hotel for me!!!) mama and I went to downtown Portland - did some shopping at Ross and saw Water Village in Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
That was rainy on Saturday at first we wanted to go to Oregon Zoo but after all we went back home to Auburn, WA.
Crater Lake has inspired people for hundreds of years. No place else on earth combines a deep, pure lake, so blue in color; sheer surrounding cliffs, almost two thousand feet high; two picturesque islands; and a violent volcanic past. It is a place of immeasurable beauty, and an outstanding outdoor laboratory and classroom.
Crater Lake is located in Southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Mountain range, 100 miles (160 km) east of the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, created when the 12,000 foot (3,660 meter) high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago following a large eruption.
Generous amounts of winter snow, averaging 533 inches (1,354 cm) per year, supply the lake with water. There are no inlets or outlets to the lake. Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet (592 meters) deep, is the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States. Evaporation and seepage prevent the lake from becoming any deeper.
I MADE IT ON JULY 12-14, 2007: SEE MY BLOG ABOUT THAT TRIP THAT I POSTED ON AUGUST 17TH, 2007
I'm planning my trip to California in September and I want to stop in Oregon Vortex on my way.
This is the original House of Mystery as you would see it today. It was built in 1904 by the Old Grey Eagle Mining Company as an assay office and tool-shed. This company stopped mining gold in 1911. A few years later this assay office slid off of its foundation on an angle and has been that way ever since. It was not until 1930 that it became known as The House of Mystery at The Oregon Vortex.
