The route this day took us from Eugene to Klamath Falls, via Crater Lake National Park. We also got to enjoy the partial eclipse along the way.

Approximate time on road/out caching: 13 hours
Total miles driven: 240 mi / 386,2 km
Total cahes found: 23
Total DNF: 2
States visited: Oregon
Famous places visited: Crater Lake National Park
Most memorable cache: GC62AA Say Cheese!
Biggest surprise: The amount of smoke in Crater Lake
Weather: Sunny
Highest temperature: 81°F / 27,2°C
Lowest temperature: 59°F / 15°C
Roadwork: Yes

Fastest way to Crater Lake

We wanted to get to Crater Lake as quickly as possible, so we could see as much as we wanted around the lake. So we didn’t have more than a handful caches planned for the first part of the trip. We also had to stop for breakfast, and gas. Getting gas in Oregon is always fun, we’re definitely not used to service like this! 😀 (For those that don’t know: it’s illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. They do it for you!)

The first one was about an hour after we left, GC40F26 The Lowell Covered Bridge. All along the way, we could see people getting ready for the eclipse. It was a strange feeling knowing that we drove further and further away from it. But we did not come here for the eclipse (but we might come for the next one!).

A milestone during the eclipse

We made it to GC62AA Say Cheese! just in time for the eclipse. It was only a partial eclipse, but as the Police officer said, kinda neat – yes! Oh yeah, we met the local Highway Patrol there. He just wanted to tell us to be careful. And that the eclipse was kinda neat.

Another thing that was neat, was that we found our webcam number 100 during the eclipse! We had almost no cell reception up there, for the most we didn’t have any at all. We knew that before going up, so we asked AnetteSylvia to help us. Which she did! 😀 Since we had no reliable way to communicate while there, she had to watch the camera to see when we arrived. And we just had to stand where we saw other people stand in the previous logs (seeing the camera also helped a bit).

We had no idea how fast the camera updated, or if she had gotten the picture. But since we were waiting for the eclipse, we were going to stay here for a while anyway. Perfect! We made sure to look at the camera a few times, and just had to trust that AnetteSylvia got what we needed.

And she didn’t disappoint! 😀 When we got connected to the rest of the world again, we got several photos from her 😀 Awesome, thanks AnetteSylvia! An added bonus to this, was to be able to share this fun milestone with someone 😀

Almost there

We did a few more stops along the road, but not too many. The traffic was almost non-existent, probably because everybody else was further north, watching the eclipse.

Heltinnen had to try the water at GC1V521 Lake Side Lookout.

First glimpse of the lake

We stopped at the first pullout after we entered the park, even though there was no cache to find there. We wanted to see the lake! Sadly it was almost covered in smoke, from all the forest fires around the state. But it was still an amazing view!

Another viewpoint

The next pullout had not one, but two caches. GC123H6 Mt Mazama and GC6F85 Watching For Wizardry. We’ve heard that the water has a very special blue color. It was a bit hard to see today, but we did see the very blue color when concentrating on the edges. It’s very interesting doing the earthcaches on a place like this. Almost unbelievable how this lake was created.

The end of the lake

The next stop was the end of the lake, after once again driving through lots of roadwork. Seems like all the national parks are doing extensive roadwork this year. We did both the caches there, and we also sat down for some food at the restaurant near the visitor center.

The other side of the lake

We had initialy planned to drive all around the lake once we got to the other side. So we could see all of it. But the amount of roadwork, the amount of smoke and the forecast saying more smoke would come, we decided to just do GCH6Z5 Pumice Castle and The Old Man of the Lake. And head down towards Klamath Falls. We’d rather come back another time (next year, maybe?), and see the entire place again. We love coming back to National Parks, so we don’t really mind doing it this way.

We did both the cache, and another pullout without caches. So we did get to see the large blue hole enough.

More smoke

We didn’t take the shortest route to Klamath Falls, but the route that led us to the virtual caches GCE072 Crystal and GC6224 Denny Creek. Between them, we hit even more smoke. Up close this time.

Red sun, again

Just as when driving through the smoke in Montana, the sun was once again red. We had to take several photos this time as well.

A few caches later, both we and the muggle in the car behind us had to stop to take some photos.

A necessary decision

We had several virtual caches planned in Klamath Falls, but for once we decided that we’d rather get some extra sleep instead of doing all of them. We cam come back for more later… But we did stop at one of them, GC69C8 A Pair in the Park – Memorial. After GC3BJFH Welcome to Klamath County, we headed straight to the last cache on the plan. GC50EJD Sam’s Control Cache was the cache closest to the hotel. And it ended with a DNF…

Pictures