Day Fourteen - Crater Lake to Coos Bay Oregon

Crater Lake to Coos Bay Oregon

13.07.2011

July 13,2011

Hi All,

Well we are now officially half-way through our trip and today we arrived at the Pacific ocean on the Oregon coast at Coos Bay. We were quite excited as we now have travelled from coast to coast. We are planning to have a nice dinner tonight to celebrate. So far it has been a great trip and we are really happy to have been able to share it with everyone all almost as we go.

We started out this morning at Crater Lake where it looked and felt like summer and fall had been skipped completely. The temperature this morning was 42 F, with a cold damp wind blowing off the snowfields on the mountains. Since Crater Lake was essentially shut down, we left there a day early. This morning we had a nice breakfast at the Crater Lake Lodge, one of those grand old wood and stone lodges found in a number of the National Parks

Crater Lake is a caldera or collapsed volcano. Thousand of years ago there was a 12,000 ft volcano, Mt. Mazama, on this spot. About 7,000 years ago, the volcano exploded causing the mountain to collapse on itself and and form a large circular basin. Subesequent smaller eruptions filled the bottom of the basin with hard lava. Over the next several thousand years, water from snow melt and rain filled the basin. Since the bottom was hard lava, the water was retained and the lake formed. It is the deepest lake in North America, 1900 ft deep. The water is very clean which gives it a striking deep blue color.

We took pictures of the lake and surroundings and moved on. Below are a several of the photos.

On the way to the coast we took highway 138 which is a scenic byway that runs along the Umpqua river. The road and river pass through a very narrow canyon with very high steep walls. The river is full of falls and rapids and is a favorite for rafters and kayakers. There are of course many turnouts along the way with scenic views. There are also a number side roads that lead to waterfalls on the many streams that feed into the Umpqua. We took one turnoff to Steamboat Falls. We followed a side road 6 miles into the back woods to the falls. It turns out there is also a fish ladder there.

While admiring the falls, two members of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife service drove up and proceeded to put on wet suits. I asked if they were going for a swim, and they replied they had to go into the creek to count fish. They told me the Steelhead were moving upstream now and that if we watched the falls long enough,we would see them. Sure enough in a few minutes we saw a couple of large fish trying to jump up the falls. Then we watched the Fish and Wildilfe people jump into the water with wetsuits, fins, and snorkels. I don't care what wear you wear, that water is from snow melt and can't be more than 45-50 F.

From there we drove onto Coos Bay on the coast where we will be for the next two nights. We celebrated our trip across the U.S and arrival on the Pacific coast with a nice dinner and a glass of wine. Following that we went to a local beach to watch the sunset. A perfect end to a very good day.