Trip to Crater Lake

For the July 4 long weekend, we decided to go to Crater Lake in Oregon.  It is almost 7-8 hrs drive from our place.

Day 1:

We left at around 7:45am from home. Packed lunch & dinner for the same day. Also packed little bit of snacks, some breakfast items, wanted to make sure there was something vegetarian options available for parents.  Our first stop on the way to Oregon was at Black Bear diner. Before this trip we had tried different bfast options at home so that we could know what my parents could eat on such occasions outside. Thankfully they liked pancakes and hash brown, so was the reason for stop at Black Bear diner. We all had a sumptuous breakfast. After the break fast break, the husband continued driving towards Oregon, making pit stops here and there at vista points and enjoying the beauty of nature. It was almost 4pm by the time we reached our cabin rooms in Crater lake.  All of us are pretty tired and my parents did find the drive very strenuous. We all decided to have lunch and then take a nap, so that we could spend some time sight seeing in the evening. After about 2 hours, we were back on the road again. After getting a short glimpse of the Crater Lake and the Rim Village, we came back to the room.  One important aspect that we didnt experience any where in the US so far, there were swarms of mosquitoes every where, which can even carry you :)

Day 2

We started the day by making a relaxed stop at Crater lake and wanted to enjoy the beauty of the lake at different points on the rim of the lake. It was a total scenic beauty. The best part, there was still snow piled up on both sides of the road. My parents refused to believe it as snow, so I had to stop on the road side and make them touch the snow.  Finally they did believe :). It was their first time experience seeing and feeling snow at such close quarters, yeah right back in Chennai, what else can you experience than scorching heat.  Some of the beautiful pictures of the lake below.

After a lot of pit stops, we decided to drive further to the other side of the National park and decided to stop for the different water falls along the scenic route. We decided to do the Rogue - Umpqua scenic byway (did it back wards from point 11) and then finally decided that Toketee falls would be the last stop for the day, before we retire to our rooms.

Clear water falls, looks more like a wall paper

Overall it was a very nice tour and am glad my parents enjoyed it as well. We were back to our yathasthanams the next day.