Crater Lake with actual visibility this time

Last time we visited Crater Lake there was wildfire smoke and nearby fires, so we saw some interesting things but it wasn't the "full experience".  The best parts two years ago were seeing the Phantom Ship in the smoke (talk about ambience) and hiking to the Pinnacles.  We figured it might be worth a detour back there while we were driving north.  Answer - yes, it was definitely worth it!

Stunning, gorgeous, spectacular, pull out the thesaurus:

Brief side pictures of the PCT as we were driving into the park:

Walk about 50 feet and you hit snow... this might be a challenging thru hiking year?

Heck, just walking around the Crater Lake visitor area can be challenging:

A bit of cross-country travel:

We spent the rest of the day gazing at the deep blue lake surrounded by green trees, gray and colorful rock, and white snow:

Someday we'll come back to get a boat tour to Wizard Island.  Certainly there is still plenty left for us to do at Crater Lake.  This time the big loop road was closed (not yet cleared of snow), also most of the park trails.  I've got a big list of hikes on the "someday at Crater Lake" list.

In the meantime, if you don't like big blue beautiful scenery, you might want to skip the rest of this post!

The obligatory selfie, yep, I smiled the whole day:

Great Scott!  Mount Scott, the tallest point in the park:

Amazingly clear reflection in the water:

Thank you, Mr. Mather!

Hmm, I guess this sidewalk is temporarily closed.  We didn't get to see the "hidden" overlook this time (at least from the inside) but at least last time we heard an excellent ranger talk there.

Oh yeah, here's a place to sit for a while!

And admire the view:

Squirrel!

I don't think this will ever get old:

Happily, one section of the rim road was open (going to the north entrance) so we drove around to the west side and admired the work they'd done to get the road clear:

Someday we'll get to the lookout tower up top:

So happy that it's a beautiful day!

Remnants from the old volcano of Mount Mazama (before it exploded):

This is Mt. McLoughlin, only 9500' high but highly snow-covered.  There's still so much snow!  Mount Shasta is faintly visible back to the left of it:

Tug-height snow banks:

Love the interesting tree shapes:

One more lake overlook before we go:

And a close-up for good measure:

Peek a boo...

Coming down off the crater to the north, we stopped at the Pumice Desert, because how could we not?  It was fun walking around to see all the pumice stones:

Closer inspection:

Yes, they are quite lightweight:

And sometimes colorful:

A nice place to sit and absorb the aura of the desert:

Thank you Crater Lake, that was a most wonderful day!