Oregon | Fiesta on Wheels

Ed and Charlene loved Crater Lake.

We learned a new phrase today: Crater Lake Blue. One glance at Crater Lake and it is very clear why people use the term Crater Lake Blue. Wow, is it gorgeous! The blue color of the lake is incredibly rich. When people first see it, you can hear them inhale as they are surprised by its beauty. Crater Lake is simply spectacular.

You can see in this photo why the “Crater Lake Blue” is now Charlene’s favorite shade of blue.

Ed remembers in grade school that one of his teachers showed a movie that discussed Crater Lake. Now all these years later, we were able to see it in person. Viewing Crater Lake is truly inspiring.

We learned all kinds of interesting facts. Crater Lake is the deepest fresh water lake in the entire United States. It started when a volcano erupted. A chasm formed in an almost perfect circle around the entire volcano. When the eruption was done, the entire mountain fell into the earth creating an immense bowl. Since the area averages 44 feet of snow every year, the bowl filled with snow and rain water. There is no other source of water for Crater Lake. Therefore, the water is pristine. Tests are run every year to determine the depth of visibility. The average is 100 feet.

Charlene with Wizard Island in the background.

There is one type of bird that is abundant around Crater Lake. It is the Clark’s Nutcracker which feeds on seeds from pine cones. Any seeds not eaten immediately are stashed and those forgotten grow into new trees.

The nutcrackers are beautiful, but noisy.

Crater Lake is definitely a place to put on everyone’s bucket list.

The sides all around the lake are very steep, just like a bowl. It is a huge bowl of the purest water in the country.

This is a panorama of 4 separate photos to fit the entire lake into one photo.

When we got back to our motorhome, we saw an egret walking carefully and slowly in the stream next to us. Beautiful! Occasionally it would stop and swiftly dip its head into the water and come up with something to gobble. We also saw a family of ducks. When we opened the door, the males flew away and the mother stayed with the ducklings which instantly swam next to her under some plants growing over the water.

This egret was right outside our motorhome door. Beautiful!

This has been a wonderful place to boondock. It will be sad to leave this place, but it will forever hold good memories for us.

Here’s an excited Charlene across the spring.

Today was a travel day and we drove from Reno, Nevada, through the north east quadrant of California and into Oregon. We were in several rain storms in California, but once we reached Oregon the sky cleared up and we had beautiful blue skies.

We found a place to boondock north of Klamath Falls. We love our site. There are only two other people in the small campground and we are away from them on the other side of the campground. The extra beautiful feature is that there is a natural spring flowing right next to our campsite. It is beautiful and peaceful. We have the coach positioned so that we see trees and bushes from all our windows.

This is the view of the fresh spring just a few yards from our motorhome. Beautiful!

Charlene loved watching all the animals. To her surprise, she saw an eagle fly past our campsite. It was so unexpected, it was hard to react before it was gone. She also saw red-winged blackbirds, white cranes, swallows, and other birds. She spied a small animal which we thought at first was a river otter, then we thought was a baby beaver but are now pretty sure was a prairie dog at the water’s edge.

While sitting outside by the water, Charlene got cold even though she was wearing jeans. She went inside and put on some sneakers and a sweatshirt. Even with those she was feeling a little chilly sitting in the shade of a nearby tree. (With no sunscreen, she didn’t want to sit in the sun.) It is amazing to think that Charlene was cold on Memorial Day weekend with long pants and a sweatshirt on!

At one stop today, Charlene was waiting for Ed to finish fueling the motorhome and she saw a whole display for the Oregon Ducks. After the initial shock wore off, she said to herself, “We’re not in Arizona any more, Toto!” It’s so weird to realize we are relatively close to Eugene.

Green and gold! Where’s the Arizona red and blue?