We drove the 50 or so miles from the Williamson River to the National Park on Monday morning. Driving thru Fort Klamath it was clear to see what’s happening in small town America. Every business was defunct. Some places were boarded up, others just look like they closed the door, locked it and walked away never to come back. A sad state of affairs.
We entered the park, one of the $25 per car National Parks. Thankfully we remembered to bring our National Park pass! That thing has saved us around $400 since we bought it at Montezuma Castle last spring!
It was around 50 miles from our campsite to the visitor center in the park and it rained a little along the way up the mountainside. There were a 
few overlooks along the highway thru the park, one of them with a great view of the volcano Mt. McLoughlin in the distance. I was thinking it might have been named for a relative of a gentleman I worked with at Sony; but when I checked the spelling of his last name, I realized his used an “a” instead of an “o”. So probably not named for a long-lost relative of Bob’s.
A ways further was an overlook of a river falls and rapids but you couldn’t
really tell there was a river down there. It looked like all trees and maybe some water.
Further up the road we found the lodge and lake. We headed over to the rim and a stiff wind was blowing and the sun went behind the clouds as we got there. It was the middle of June and it felt like it was 30 degrees out there with me in my jeans and long sleeve tee shirt… I was not really dressed for the occasion. I was not seeing the 
bright blue water I had read about, so I was a bit disappointed at first. I found a small bank of snow and Dusty got his first experience walking on snow!! It didn’t appear that he liked it, but he didn’t say anything.
Kathy popped her head into the Lodge to check it out, and then we headed further north on the roadway around the crater. At the next overview, the sun came out and the lake turned the glorious bright blue I had always read about. The little island in the lake is called Wizard Island. The water was flurescent blue and purple near the shore of the island. But that wind didn’t go away, so it was still pretty cold. I think the signs mentioned we were around 8,000 feet up, so that’s why, and there was beginning to be quite a bit more snow. There were even kids sledding on a large patch of snow off to the side of the road. It went for a good 400-500 feet before it ended, so they were getting a pretty good ride for the middle of June.
We ate lunch in the car at one of the overlooks of the lake, and after a while decided to head back instead of continue all the way around the lake. We wanted an early start in the morning, so we needed to get the coach ready for the next day’s drive to Coos Bay.
