Water, Water And More Water

 

I just have to say – driving through eastern Oregon is a long, long stretch and I had to stop halfway thru Oregon to rest up. I ended up at the Harney County Fairgrounds which was basically a big parking lot. As Miko and I are walking around the parking lot, I hear a lot of whooping and hollering coming from over at the grandstand area. We wander over there and found that they had a two day bronc riding clinic going on. Today was saddle bronc riding, tomorrow would be bareback. These guys, who looked like they were high school age would come shooting out of the shoot and everybody would yell “Lean Back, lean back” which none of them seemed to be able to do. As a consequence, most of them only lasted about half a second before they hit the dirt. I was entertained. 

I was planning on going to see Crater Lake National Park. After careful research, I decided to stay at a campground that was on the north side of the park. It was only 18 miles from the north entrance. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the north entrance was closed and does not normally open until sometime in June. That meant that I now had an hour and a half drive to the south entrance. Oh well, my campground was beautiful. It was right on a lake and had many hiking trails that Miko and I could explore.

Lemolo Lake
Where I was camped

Crater Lake is famous for it's deep blue color and also for how pure the water is. No rivers flow into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. It is the deepest lake (1,949 ft) in the United States. The lake was pretty but I have to say that I was much more impressed with the amount of snow that was still there in May.

Look at how high that snow is!

This was the building's second story

Crater Lake

Wizard Island
A small volcano cone - there is a hole in the top of it

More Crater Lake

I found out that my campground was on a scenic waterfall road. Be still my heart. In one day, I saw four different waterfalls. I also was reminded how I should not really rely on Google maps to get me there. My first waterfall, Google took me down a narrow forest road that was extremely rough. I kept going, thinking that this couldn't be right until I came to some fallen trees blocking the road. Time to turn around, inch by inch. Once I got back on the main road and went maybe a quarter of a mile down the road, I found the entrance, marked by big signs.

Clearwater Falls

Whitehorse Falls

Lower part of Watson Falls

This is the top part of Watson Falls with a 293 ft drop. 
There was so much mist that you could hardly see the falls.  

Built in 1949 as part of a hydroelectric project, it powers three generator turbines which supplies enough electricity for 22,500 homes.  It was leaky as all get out.

Toketee Falls a 113 ft drop