TOWARDS CRATER LAKE

From Depoe Bay we continued on south down the coast highway. Oregon has hundreds of state parks along the coast and we stopped several times.  The water was very cold about 50 * and only a few brave kids were playing in the waves. 

Diane took several tries to get the waves breaking on the rocks behind and Keith with his eyes open but it turned out great.

 The cliff just a few inches behind Diane drops off about 70 feet to the beach, The Oregon coast is known for the rock formations just off shore left from a volcano  in the distance past.

CRATER LAKE  The crater formed when a volcano blew off the mountain top many years ago. The only inflow of water is from rain but mostly from snow. The mountain gets a average of 44 feet (17 meters)  on a yearly basis. 2011 saw 56 feet or 17 meters of snow. 
 

 It snows every month of the year and because of the height and the purity of the snow it is considered the purist body of water on earth.  We imagine that is what the whole earth was like at creation.

The purity is what makes the water so blue.  It is also the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1943 feet
. Sadly the roadway around the rim is not open yet, it often does not open until mid July and only for a few weeks.  The temperature on top was right at 50* but now 3 hours later heading back to the coast it is 84*  Tomorrow we will cross into California and the Redwood forest.