Day 45 - It's cool (COLD) to get a thrill of a lifetime

 Last night was a great night for sleeping with clear skies and cool temperatures (great to be back up at elevation).  I woke up once which gave me a great view of the stars.  The sky continues to be on full display - I think our last cloudy evening was over a month ago!  

We ended up getting a LATE start to the day. Amy and I were awake but we didn’t move as the boys were both sound asleep until almost 8.  Apparently they needed the extra sleep.  We had breakfast out on the picnic table and then drove up to the Crater Lake visitor center at Rim Village.  Even after we parked, it took us another 30-45 minutes to actually see Crater Lake because the boys got distracted with another pile of snow.  They kicked at it and climbed it and just generally enjoyed the snow for a long time before we could finally drag them away to see the amazingly blue color of Crater Lake.

We continued up the road and decided to do the hike up to the watchtower.  It was a short, but very steep hike - especially at the end with lots of switchbacks. However, all those steps were worth it when we could see the views at the top.

Back down the hill we realized how late in the day it already was so we went back to camp to get some lunch and relax for a bit.  Lunch included our latest experiment - shelf stable cheese (aka Velveeta).  The boys weren’t fans (I don’t blame them), but it works and can be used on days we don’t want to have a cold cooler or access to 120V power for the fridge.  

After lunch, we went back out to the lake and did the one path that got us down to the lake level.  It was short, but even steeper than the Watchman hike.  Thankfully at the top, the people said that the lake felt good to swim in so we grabbed our swim gear.  Once at the bottom, we changed in the change area and tried out the water of Crater Lake.  Spoiler alert, it was COLD.

One really neat aspect of the end of the trail is that there is a spot that has a sheer cliff with some deep water below.  This meant that jumps from the cliff were a possibility and there were people doing it.  Believing that I wouldn’t be back here anytime in the forseeable future, I decided that this was an opportunity not to be missed.  So, after some cheering by Robinson and words of caution from Sebastian, I went for it.  It was terrifying (and chilly), but I’m glad I did it.

After the hike back to the top, we went back to camp and had some dinner.  Before bed, we all needed shower.  Having learned from the state of the showers near the visitor center, we had found out that there were three showers in the camp site.  We got our stuff and packed over to where they were.  There was nobody in line here so we thought we were on easy street.  Alas, there was a reason nobody was there - no hot water!  Not willing to walk the ¾+ mile back to visitor center we decided to just gut it out and do cold showers.  That was not pleasant.  I’d not give Crater Lake a high rating on their amenities.

To warm up, Robinson started a fire for us to enjoy and as the sun set (it’s sets so late out here), we drifted off to sleep.