Left n back Again - A Continental Road Trip - Main Narrative - September 2004

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Well, since the rain had caught up to us again (it seemed like it rained a day after we arrived anywhere!), we decided to push on to the south and hopefully warmer and drier climes. The coast looked pretty rainy from the forecast, so, even though we wanted to see and travel along the coast, we decided to stay inland where it was more likely to be dry. We selected another interesting Volcano-park, Crater Lake NP. Crater Lake is the remnant Caldera (large crater-like depression left by a massive eruption of a large volcano in the distant past).

On the way south, we stopped in Vancouver, WA for breakfast and an oil change for the S2000. I found this great little independant Honda/Acura service shop (Clark's Discount Honda/Toyota) that had this super deal. New customers get a free oil and filter change! Luke was a bit miffed that he paid a premium price for his oil and filter change at a Honda dealer in Spokane... ah well, you know them dealers... don't trust them!

Sharp-dressed man

Gas break

Crater Lake National Park

Monday, September 13

After my oil change, we proceeded south and west to Crater Lake. It was sunny and warm in the low country, but as we approached Crater Lake (whose altitude around the rim is over 8000 feet), we could see it was mantled in thick white clouds. We chose to proceed up anyway, looking at different possibilities for overnight accommodations. It was indeed damp and very cold at the rim... I'm guessing not much above freezing. We had brief glimpses of the amazing views available at the rim, and Luke and Sophie got out and posed for a couple of frigid-looking pictures.

courtesy Luke

The pumice desert

Freezing at the rim

Silhouettes at the Caldera

As far as accommodation went, the lodge at the rim was (a) full, and (b) super expensive. We thought about the campground in the park, but the fact that all our camping gear was soaked from the night before, coupled with the cold wet weather and lateness of the day discouraged us from that. We'd heard about an affordable cottage outfit just outside the park to the south, called Wilson's cabins, and we decided to check that out.

Wilson's cottages

50 year timewarp

Wilson's cabins turned out not only to be available and low-cost, it was a trip into the past. The place was like the 1950s, unmodified, right down to the folks who ran the place. Innumerable bits of old memorabilia were in the main office, and the cottages themselves were right out of the era of mom-and-pop-and-family and wood-panelled station wagons. Our cottage (which had room for 4) actually had a garage, and an old coleman oil-fired heating stove. The gas-fired cooking stove was built into the wood-panelled kitchen. Everything was just so! And, one of the reasons we decided to go for non-camping accommodations was so that we could dry out our totally wet camping gear, for which the garage turned out to be very useful.

Number 9

Drying soaked gear

A wilson cottage

The next day dawned crisp and clear. Looked like we were going to get a good look at Crater Lake after all! We asked the cottage hosts if we could pack up and leave after we'd had our morning jaunt up to Crater Lake. We did the entire rim drive, including a side trip to the interesting Pinnacles section, an area of tephra rock towers. Crater Lake is one very large and very deep lake. It is brilliant blue, and the feeling from points on the rim is one of vastness. This would have been a very very large volcano in its time (the name for this 'paleo' volcano was Mount Mazama). We did not have time to do any hiking here, since we had to get back to the cottages and check out, but our visit and circumnavigation of the rim was worth it nevertheless.

Crater Lake

The Phantom Ship

The Pinnacles

courtesy Luke

Enjoying Crater Lake's views

Cheery Luke

Jenn at an overlook

Discussing important matters

Wizard Island

Next stop : the coast. The forecast looked good, and we were not too far away. We headed west back towards the coast, stopping at Grant's Pass to wash up the cars. It was a nice, hot, and dry day now, and we had good hopes for a nice coastal view. We found a nice back-way from Grant's pass to Gold Beach on the Oregon coast, and we arrived at Gold Beach with a stunning late-day sun illuminating miles of spectacular coastline.

courtesy Luke

The Oregon Coast

More spectacular coastline.

Perched at dusk

A short drive southward along the coast brought us to Harris Beach State Park, where we found a nice little campground close to the shore. We spent a little time on the beach before sunset, and hoped to return the next morning to more thoroughly explore the nooks and crannies of the rocky coast.

Sunset at Harris Beach

Well... the next day dawned, yes, you guessed it. Gray. And then it started to drizzle and rain. Well, we were here, so we decided to go down and explore the shoreline anyway. An oregon state parks volunteer ranger was wandering around the beach, seeing what was about, and we chatted with him for a bit. We engaged in seaweed-throwing, rock scrambling, and marine-life watching. and got pretty wet.