Rim Road Tour

The Rim Road was created by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1919. It is still the only road that fully encircles Crater Lake. It is 33 miles of incredible. The roadway itself is an engineering marvel of the time; to think about how difficult it must have been to build in that era. Above that wonder; are the many views it offers of the lake and those views are unbelievable. Those 33 miles of road took us six hour to complete. In our defense; there was a lot to see and do in those 33 miles.  These are so many vantage points to stop and see the lake from different angles, different views of the same landscape. There are also little spur roads, that lead to hikes and trails and a couple of waterfalls that we just couldn’t keep from being distracted by. But there was also what could be around the next curve, to draw us onward; and there were a lot of curves.

Two of the main points of interest, along the Rim Road; are Wizard’s Island and the Phantom Ship. Both of these are smaller volcanic vents, which rose after the collapse of the main Mazama Caldera. In addition to those are the incredible color of the water, the flora and fauna of the Rim, the wide open vistas of the valleys that stretch away from the caldera rim, then there are the waterfalls, and the distant volcanic pinnacles. Mazama is not an extinct volcano, as there is still thermal activity below the surface of the water; so at some point, there could still be changes to the caldera area.

Our first stop was discovery point, where John C. Freemon is thought to be the first white settler to see Crater Lake at approximately this area . This was one of the first good looks at Wizards Island. It is the largest island and rises out from the side of the lake. It is hard to see from here, but there is also a caldera on Wizards Island. It is approximately 90 feet deep. There are several more stops, from which to see the island; and we did get a better view of the island’s caldera.

From there we worked our way around the West Rim Road to the Phantom Ship Island lookout point. This was our first view of the smaller island on Crater Lake. And it does have a small resemblance to a ship under full sail,  I’m sure in the dim light of sunset or sunrise it would be more striking. It is visible from The Rim Village but that trail was still closed with snow when we were there last.

From there we took the turn off to turn off to Plaikni Falls and the Pinnacles. The Plaikni Falls trail is a 2 mile trail that leads to a beautiful double falls. The majority of this trail leads through old growth forest. The trail then opens into a peaceful trail following the creek that runs down from Plaikni Falls. Back home, pine were, well just pines but, here there is great diversity in the old forest from the copper orange bark of the Ponderosa Pine, the deeply corrugated bark of the White Fir, or the horizontal bark of the Whitebark Pine or the comical crook top of the Hemlock. The falls themselves were gorgeous; but there was an added bonus, of them being a watering spot for the local butterflies. They really added to our wonder of the place. Butterflies swirled around us and lighted on the path before us  at each water puddle. There were orange ones and blue ones, all somewhat small, and they cluster together in the moisture splashed on the rock path.

The Pinnacles are seemingly delicate spires of volcanic ash. The winds and rains have eroded the more fragile ash away from the canyon’s sides, leaving stone spires standing alone, against the backdrop of the canyon walls. Some of them were thick and substantial; while others are thin and delicate looking.

From there we decided to head home; as we had been out for several hours, and lunch was calling us back. We passed by Vidae Falls on our way home. It was right off the highway and fell from a high ridge; splashing down the ridge face and disappearing under the highway, to come out on the other side. From there it continued its way through the canyons, to eventually join up with Annie Creek.

Thanks for checking in on our adventure. Please leave a comment so we know your where here. We’ll post again when we find internet again.