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Crater_Lake_2004_043.jpgCopper Anniversary

 

 

 

She hadn't strangled me yet...

 

 

 

Yet being the operative word

 

 

 

 

 

Linda and I had been married for eight years.  We celebrated the weekend by wanting to do a bike ride around the Rim Road.  Rim Road is a roller coaster of hills and narrow road.  It's thirty-two miles long at an elevation always above 6,500 feet.  For those who haven't been at those elevations doing physical activity, it's a challenge.  Not impossible, but you find yourself constantly out of breath and even the smallest of physical activities can wear you out surprisingly fast.  Due to circumstances mostly due to work, we were unable to do a bike ride or even go camping.

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A note about Crater Lake: Don't bring your dog.  You can't take the dog anywhere.  I believe the rule is something along the lines of not taking a dog anywhere farther than 50 feet from any parking lot.  Pretty weak rule if you ask me.  Also, there is no mountain biking allowed on any trail in the park.  Not the most welcoming of national parks.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove, like good little tourists, around the rim.  It took us a few hours after stopping and doing a few little trails from the road to the rim.  We were law breakers and took our dog because I couldn't possibly leave him in the Jeep in the heat we were in.  One of the best stops was the Phantom Ship Lookout.  Hike up and see this thing, it's really cool.  Rising 145 feet out of the water, in the right light, it does kind of look like a ship.

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We did stop up in the old and rebuilt lodge.  It's a pretty building with a lot of history.  The stonework and history of the lodge is rather fascinating.  Especially when you watch some of the video on how the lodge was tearing itself apart and how they fixed it without taking the building down.

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Crater Lake is gorgeous, the deepest lake in the United States.  The odd thing is you don't get to interact with it at all.  The view is breathtaking but you don't really get to do anything with it other than drive around it and look at it from different angles.  It's easily a one day trip.