Steel Visitor Center and Rim Village - Crater Lake National Park

Our August 2013 visit to Crater Lake National Park continued as we turned off of Oregon 62 onto Munson Valley Road.  After a brief stop at the entrance station we headed to the William G. Steel Information Center shown above.  This building was constructed between 1932 and 1936 as the ranger dormitory.  Several other buildings in this area were also built during the Depression, including the administration building next door.  A total of 18 buildings are included in the Munson Valley Historic District listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  The architectural style has been labeled National Park Service rustic and was utilized extensively in many of the early western parks.  Inside the Information Center are restrooms, a small bookstore, an information desk and a very small theater room.  The park service presents an excellent 22-minute orientation film every half hour.  The film, Crater Lake: Into the Deep, includes underwater footage showing how the depth and clarity of the lake are measured.  The video also includes some excellent animation showing how the lake was formed after the eruption and subsequent collapse of Mount Mazama about 7,700 years ago.

Park Headquarters

Continuing up Munson Valley Road, we arrived at Rim Village.  There are several buildings in the village.  One building houses a bookstore/giftshop and a small food service area with a selection of sandwiches, snacks and a variety of beverages.  Another houses the historic Crater Lake Lodge that opened in 1915.  A very small building houses the Rim Village Visitor Center while the nearby Sinnott Memorial Overlook houses a variety of geology and research exhibits as well as covered open-air views of the lake.

Gift Shop, Food and Restrooms

The Crater Lake Lodge sits almost on the edge of the rim

Garfield Peak rises behind the lodge

The seventy-one guest rooms are usually booked a year in advance

The lodge also houses a restaurant

The Rim Visitor Center is one of the smallest buildings in the village

Ranger offices are also in the building

The Sinnott Memorial Overlook is on the edge of the cliff just below the rim

Access to the overlook requires descending a series of steps...

...and then following a steep, paved path

Mount Scott from the Sinnott Memorial Overlook

Wizard Island and Llao Rock from the overlook

A $10 vehicle pass is valid for seven consecutive days at Crater Lake National Park.  Another option is to purchase the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass valid for one year for $80.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm.

Annie Creek Canyon - Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon does not have a "gateway" city like the Badlands has Wall, South Dakota; Zion has Springdale, Utah; or Great Smoky Mountains has Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Cherokee, North Carolina.  Medford and Klamath Falls are the nearest communities with a full variety of services.  During our visit in late August, 2013, we chose to stay at Klamath Falls during our visit to Crater Lake.  The town is large enough to have several automobile dealerships, several chain restaurants and motels, and even limited access highways.  The only real downside we found was on the beautiful, scenic drive north on U.S. 97 along the shore of Upper Klamath Lake.  The insects along this route were so numerous that the rental vehicle was coated in no time.  Each evening we stopped at one of the first service stations coming into town to clean the windshield.  Oregon is one of the few states (New Jersey is the other one I recall) that require an attendant to pump gas for you.  However, you are on your own for cleaning the windshield.  The attendant did ask every evening if we needed gas or had we just stopped to "remove the organics."
North of Upper Klamath Lake is the junction with Oregon 62 also known as the Crater Lake Highway.  It is about 30 miles from the junction to the park entrance station.  The route passes through the village of Fort Klamath before heading into park about 20 miles from the junction.  Once in the park, the road is on the southwestern rim of Annie Creek Canyon.  There are several overlooks that yield beautiful views of the canyon.

Our first view of the canyon

Over the 7,700 years since Mount Mazama collapsed into the caldera that contains Crater Lake, Annie Creek has eroded a steep canyon through the thick layer of pumice and scoria ejected in that collapse.  As different layers of deposits erode at various rates, massive cliff walls form along the edge of the creek.  In addition, the gasses and heat vented by numerous fumaroles hardened and solidified vertical columns of the pumice surrounding those vents.  As erosion processes continue, striking spires are revealed in the landscape that mark the location of the old fumaroles.

Cliffs across the canyon

View up the canyon toward Mount Scott

Slide zone across the canyon

Spires across the canyon are the remains of ancient fumaroles

A $10 vehicle pass is valid for seven consecutive days at Crater Lake National Park.  Another option is to purchase the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass valid for one year for $80.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm.