Crater Lake Trip

Apparently I was the only person in the family who had ever been to Crater Lake. It felt like a real shame if I let the kids grow up and move away without visiting the ONE National Park in Oregon. So we made a camping trip out of it, staying at Diamond Lake about 25 minutes from the Crater. We had planned to camp with some friends from the ward, but they had sadly needed to back out at the last minute.

That was the first misfortune, but adding to is was the scheduling mishap with Brooke. We had previously done some trading so that we could start our trip on a Thursday, and even though she KNEW we were going camping (which we always try to get out the door as early as possible for), she still decided to schedule something with Ky for all day on Thursday. 🙄 As a result, we didn't get out the door until about 5:30pm, and didn't arrive at our campsite until probably 9 or 9:30pm.

It's late August so naturally the sun had long set. On top of that, the skies are somewhat smokey from wildfires in the vicinity. So it was quite dark by the time we rolled into our campsite.

I have no photos because we immediately got busy setting up our tent and blowing up air mattresses and all that, in the dark, with nothing but a few flashlights and cell phones. Hah! It makes memories I guess. :-) We had picked a spot that looked flat enough, but was more slanted than we'd thought, so we scootched the tent over the next day.

The next morning I laid in my sleeping bag in the tent and listened as individually, every woke up and stumbled out of the tent and declared, "Whaaaaaat? There's a LAKE there!"

Because apparently they had no idea we were camping by a lake - and not just near a lake, but our site came right up to the water's edge. Our tent was like 25 feet away from a huge lake and kids had NO idea where they were sleeping all night. 🤣 (I had walked Kieran down slope the night before and we'd looked at the water at the bank with our flashlights, but as he told everyone the next day, he'd thought it was just a stream at the time.)

After our yummy breakfast, (hashbrown patties are the new hashbrowns. Nate was a particular fan) we headed to Crater Lake. G.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. The girls liked doing the Junior Ranger activities, we got some views, stopped at the gift shop, and then went on a short hike.

Kylea didn't have any shoes that fit her for this trip, so the poor thing was stuck with too small tennies. But Nate helped her tie her laces around her ankles so she could wear them like slip-ons. The boys had all taken off ahead, leaving us in the dust while Nate did that and Hollyn and I waited with them. The hike was SO beautiful. Short, easy, and just lovely. I bet it would have been even better if the wildflowers were in season.

Eventually our group caught up to the boys... well, to Brennan and Asher. Where was Kieran? He was at the car. What?!? The hike path was a loop and the car was just around a bend we couldn't see. Whew! Unfortunately, as we approached the parking lot, Kieran popped out and told us he had pooped his pants because he couldn't hold it, and had been told to stay at the car (by Brennan), so that was that. We promptly turned around, stopped at the village to throw away his underwear and headed back to camp.

At least we got to see the crater, lol.

Sasquatch sighting! And he's even being photobombed by... a lost hiker?

The afternoon we tried to swim in the lake. It was a little chilly, and there was no real beach, but the littles enjoyed splashing around. That is until... Hollyn was sitting near the bank in the innertube, while Kylea and Asher were moving a log stump up the slope. Suddenly the log got away from Ky and went barrelling down the slope right towards Hollyn. Thankfully her head was missed and her only injuries were on her hand and leg. She later tripped on the tent corner and experienced a few other injuries and mishaps. It was an emotional day, highs and lows. :-)

Just a boy and his guac, watching a sunset

Post log rolling incident

Hammock overlooking the lake

On our way back from the visit to the Crater, we stopped for a bit of ice cream at a spot near the campground on Diamond Lake.

Camping hair, don't care

We got a nice early start the next day, heading home, so we took the time to stop at a few other campgrounds and check them out. One such campground was called "Blue Pool" so naturally we had high hopes. It was an ok campground - pretty rustic and situated on a river. The day use area though had a pretty sweet looking swimming setup at the river, so we decided to spend an hour playing. Turns out that water was beyond frigid. I barely tolerated having my feet in the water, lol. So in the end there were a few quick polar bear plunges, then we headed home.