crater lake

road to crater lake
more snow as we get higher

some roads closed

clearing the snow at visitor centre

snow fight

throwing snow

entrance to the park

snowing, how beautiful

Sunday 24th April 2011.

Today we leave Medford and head to Crater Lake to see if this year we are able to actually see it. Last year we stopped off here and could not see anything because of the fog. The morning was raining and a bit overcast but appeared OK. We set off with a two hour drive to the lake. With about half an hour to travel the road turns off the main and you head up the mountain. A few minutes in and the road get snow on the sides etc. A few more minutes in and the road is totally covered in ice! We continue on and it starts to snow fairly heavily, thank god we have a 4wd this year. As we get closer a snow plow meets us on the road who was flying along, I thought he was going to run into us. We get to the top and the place is deserted and they are clearing the snow from around the visitor centre and it's totally overcast and snowing. There was no way we could see the lake even though we were only a few metres from it.

We turned and drove back down stopping at the park entrance to throw some snow around. It was then back in the car for about a 5 hour drive to Ontario Oregon which is where we were spending the night. We arrived at Ontario at about 6.30pm which was now 7.30pm as we had crossed into mountain time. Tomorrow we head to Salt Lake City.