Wednesday 5th September

We spent today at Crater Lake National Park which is possibly the most scenic place we have ever visited. Our first sight of the lake amazed us with its size, beauty and depth of colour.

It is 1,943 feet deep, one of the deepest lakes in the world. The drive around the rim is 33 miles long.

www.nps.gov/crla

Whenever we stopped to admire the view we encountered these cute chipmunks.

Despite the heat of the day there are still pockets of snow because 533 inches falls in an average winter and it is cooler at these heights.

An amazing sight are the vast flat areas of pumice dust covered with only these red leaved plants, Newberry's knotweed.

The views of the Cascade Mountains on the horizon are also stunning.

This is a peak which reaches about 2,000 feet higher than the lake's surface.

Coming down the eastern side you can see the cliffs reflected in the still water at the deepest point.

We walked a loop trail to view the rock known as the Phantom Ship.

We took a side road to The Pinnacles which are spires of volcanic ash sculpted by erosion. They make very strange shapes.

There were lots of lovely plants around the sheltered edges of the forested areas including these Crater Lake currants.