50 before 60- Crater Lake June 28, 2016

I woke at 4:33 am and saw that the sky was lightening, but I was not really in the mood to go watch the sunrise. So, I went back to sleep. My husband got up around 7 and went out to the Great Hall for coffee.
When I finally gave up at 8 and got up, it was 64 degrees, but didn't really feel cold. I got some nice shots of the early morning lake before our breakfast of the rest of the muffins we'd brought from Florence, along with the juice we'd bought last night and my husband's coffee.

At 9:20 we headed out in the car (1885) for the Visitor's Center. It was only 10 minutes and 3 miles away. By the time we got inside, they'd already started the film. So, we decided to take the Lady of the Woods trail behind the center before the next one at 10.
We had a little trouble following the guide, as the trail was not always obvious. We did find the Lady.

I'm not sure why the artist stopped carving. The bugs were a bit of a nuisance, but not as bad as last night. The woods were nice and we could see some of the Park Service buildings. Snow runoff made for some nice streams.

The trail had only a 100 foot rise in elevation, but we found even that affected breathing. After stop #4 on the map, we were stopped by a good amount of snow across the trail. We could not finish the loop and had to double back. It was disappointing.
We did, however, make it back in time for the excellent film. Afterwards, I got my National Parks Passport stamped and did some shopping. I'd mailed a postcard back at the lodge, but my husband took advantage of the post office in the Visitor's Center to mail a card, for which we'd brought a stamp from home. He also found out more disappointing news- most of the East Rim Road was still closed due to the snow that still remained. This was particularly frustrating, because some of the easiest trails are off of that, as well as the drive to the highest point and a waterfall near the road. So, this made us take our time, when we did set off on our drive.
We left the Visitor's Center at 10:50 and went back up to the Rim Village for provisions. The sandwich selection was no better than last night. While my husband selected 2 sandwiches and 2 apples and paid the exorbitant price of $21.70 for them, I bought bug spray and eye drops to help my dry eyes.
We set off  on our drive at 11:12 (1891), and stopped just moments later on the West Rim Road. We stopped at just about every overlook after that. Some for a few minutes, some much longer. At Discovery Point at 11:19, I discovered cell service and posted a picture to Facebook and took other great photos.

That water was so clear and so blue. Not to mention, you could look so deeply into it.
We were at the Watchman Overlook by 11:40 (1895) and I was able to get a shot of the lodge.

We sat on the wall and ate our lunch with an excellent view of the lake below us. There's something you don't do every day!

There were latrines with hand sanitizer, which was handy. We were back in the car at 12:30, but had to wait in line due to roadwork. We only waited 10 minutes, which wasn't bad. They had to lead only one lane of traffic at a time. I'm not sure what would be more boring - being the flagman or the guy driving the lead car back and forth.
We'd see pockets or large passes of snow on either side of us. So neat to see snow this late in June!
I got a great shot of the other side of Wizard Island at Llao Rock overlook. That's Llao Rock on the right behind the trees.

At Puma Point, which was a very quiet rest area, I got this great cloud shot at 1:16.

Truth be told, I took hundreds of shots on these stops. The red rocks at Cleetwood Cove Parking had a wilder look. There were few birds and some flowers at times. At times, we were truly driving on the rim of the caldera.
At 2:04, we reached the end of the road pull-out. They probably chose this spot to close the road, because the pull-out is really large and has lots of parking. Hikers were allowed to continue along the road at this point. I was really surprised to find some cell coverage in spots out here.

We turned around at 2:28. We stopped at 2:43 at a snow patch, so that my husband could use some to try to clean off the windshield. It did help some. When we got to the construction zone again at 2:55, we were incredibly lucky, as we got to be the final car to go through at that time.
Having driven a total of 36 miles, we were back at the lodge at 3:09, where we thoroughly enjoyed the Diet Coke from the machine and didn't mind paying $1.50 for it.
My husband wanted to go to the ranger talk at 4 on the impact of adding crayfish to Crater Lake to feed fish they'd added to attract fishermen back in the day. I wanted to get in a decent hike (if you gain elevation, we consider it a hike). So, he went to the talk and I headed out along the rim path to the Discovery Trail.
Near the bookstore in the Rim Village, I discovered a side path leading down steps to an overlook. I ran my fingers along the wall of snow, as I carefully went down. The overlook was covered and had signs explaining the lake and pointing out features. There was also a large room in the hill with exhibits. As I turned to go in there, I ran into my husband. I really hadn't expected him to catch up so soon. He said, he'd left the talk early once he got the gist- the crayfish are bad news.
My knees liked going up the stairs a bit better than going down. At 4:45, we finally reached the actual beginning of the Discovery Trail. The trail is considered easy and stretches 1.3 miles to Discovery Point, which we'd visited earlier. The sign said it takes 1 hour, but we weren't sure we'd do it in that time. And, we were going round-trip as it was.
It was a climb at times, and we were closer to the edge than I would have liked at others. But, it was lovely.

Some other hikers passed us, but the trail wasn't crowded. At 5:28, we hit a snowbank across the trail. Going over it didn't seem that wise, so we headed back. We saw ground squirrels and some birds along the way. We reached the beginning of the trail at 6:02 and it took another 18 minutes to reach our room. Showering felt great after that exercise!
At 7:45, we went to dinner in the restaurant in the lodge. This picture was actually taken last night.

I sat facing the outer doors, at my husband's insistence, to enjoy the view, but the glare made that difficult. The food was excellent. I had Stuffed Chicken Breast ($28) and he had Seared Duck Breast($33), along with two glasses of Sageland Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon( @$7.95).

We just couldn't say no to the delicious Marionberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream that we had for dessert. Chockful of berries!

When we came out at 9:05, the Great Hall was totally full, as was the area near the front desk. So, we went back to the room and made do with the chair and the bed to sit on to read.
What a beautiful day we'd had!