West Coast Trip: Crater Lake, OR (Day 11)

We left San Francisco at 10 pm at night and boarded a bus to get on the Amtrack (San Fran doesn't have Amtrak train stops). Our first Amtrak ride was 8 1/2 hours overnight, but it's wasn't in a sleeper...regular seats. That was an experience! We decided not to get a sleeper because they were an additional $225 on top of our ticket! It was hard to sleep though and needles to say; we were glad that leg was over.

Amtrak Train

When we arrived in Oregon, it was chilly, but we were glad to only be 45 minutes from Crater Lake. We stayed at a cute little inn about 20 minutes from the entrance to the park. The drive up to Crater Lake was beautiful. The West Coast really is the jewel of America. I loved Crater Lake the minute we arrived. It was less busy than Yosemite & Sequoia/Kings Canyon, so it was a breath of fresh air to be able to explore more easily. Most of the time, we felt like it was our park to explore and no one was in our way.

Yes, those are flying saucers and yes we were abducted by aliens.

Panoramic view of the lake...now can you see why this was my favorite place?

The blue water is completely natural, which was mind boggling.

We drove all of the way around the lake and get different perspectives about each side.

Just a beautiful place to be.

We were able to hike all over the place and see landscapes like this at the bottom of the lake.

We hiked a mile down to the water's level and explored a bit. We dreaded the mile hike up hill...and I mean uphill. It was the most strenuous climb at Crater Lake.

Down by the water.

1 year in...and we still love each other! :)

A path to a beautiful waterfall just opened a few months before we got there, so we got the opportunity to see this beauty.

Ryan's shot of the waterfall!

The Pinnacles of Crater Lake at the Pinnacles Lookout.

It may look like we're warm, but it was freezing! One of my favorite "photo shoots" of our entire trip.

Ryan's favorite picture of us from the trip.

My favorite version of it :)

All in all, Crater Lake was beautiful. We had a great meal at the Crater Lake Lodge and met a really interesting grandmother, her daughter, and her new baby. You know when you leave somewhere and you have a fuzzy feeling (and I don't mean because you had a few too many drinks)...we left here feeling like God's beautiful creation is astounding and your experiences are some of your best treasures.