Crater Lake Weekend Trip
It’s been a couple weeks since our trip to Crater Lake. It was a slow start, as usual, to our travel day. We had to load the Casita, get groceries and air up the Casita tires. We noticed an indent in a tire and were coincidentally by Les Schwab and asked someone to look at it for us. Apparently, an indent is OK and normal in trailer tires, but poking out is bad.
It was a long trip to Crater Lake. We were happy to use our annual federal park pass- only our second use for it. We started driving into the park, turned some corners, and were driving along a long, flat stretch when….Bam! Mike’s kayak was hanging right by the driver’s side window. Oops. He forgot to strap in the kayak to the top of the rack but he had tied down the bottom and the ends. A gust of wind picked it up and threw it over the side of the truck. There was Mike and Vicki again pulled over to the side of the road with their Casita, making repairs. Luckily, it was a federal park this time and not a highway so the passing traffic was slower.
After tying in the kayak, we continued to the campground. It was a Friday, and we were relying on arriving early to get a campsite. We were surprised that all the electrical sites were filled but were ready to practice our dry-camping skills again. We picked a nice spot with quite a bit of privacy, after about 20 minutes of examining the other campsites to pick the best one. Iris approved of the location. Mike set out our new outdoor rug under the awning, then put our new travel chairs out and it was like a living room outdoors. We spent many hours sitting there. Forgetting we were dry-camping, we tried to get a TV signal for the Oregon Duck game the next day. Dang it, no electricity but we didn’t get a signal anyway. We thought we would drive into Klamath Falls to watch the game. That ended Day 1, at about 7:00 pm because we couldn’t keep our eyes open.
Day 2 started off with a 5 mile run with me and Iris. It was nice to run in the park, though the road shoulder was tight. I showered at the Casita and we went to the Crater Lake lodge to look at the lake. Then, we decided to slowly work our way into Klamath Falls to watch the football game over lunch. It was a longer drive than we expected but we saw quite a few, big, white pelicans in Klamath Lake on the way. We tiffed over where to eat because there was no outdoor seating and no dog-friendly restaurants. It was hot outside so leaving Iris in the truck was not an option. Finally, I let Mike win and we went to the brew pub, sat on their patio, and tied Iris to the outside of the patio. (That’s my version-Mike’s version is that I finally gave in but said Iris would never be OK outside of the gate and that it was a colossal mistake to try. ) Surprisingly, she did very well and didn’t whine much at all. The beer was good but no Duck game. We watched part of it on our iPhones and it was clear Oregon was not going to have a problem so missing the rest of the game was OK. The drive back wasn’t any shorter. We hung out in our outdoor livingroom reading and drinking beer.
Sunday started again with a run with me and Iris. This time, we ran over 9 miles, from the campground to the visitor’s center. There was a lot of uphill. Mike met us at the visitor’s center and took Iris to the rim to take more photos while I ran back to the campsite. I can’t believe they beat me back to the Casita, but barely. We had researched kayak options the day before on our way to Klamath Falls. There was no cell reception in the park and very little outside it until Klamath Falls. We found our way to the canoe trail by piecing together the little information we learned about it the day before and less-than-sporadic reception. But, we found the canoe trail. The water level was low, as expected, and there were very few people on the trail. In some locations, it was so shallow that we kicked up mud with our paddles and paddled through a bunch of seaweed- gross. The trail veered off from the northern Klamath Lake into some marshes with tall grasses. We saw fantastic birds, including more pelicans. The pelicans flew by us and the whooshing sound of their wings flapping was incredible. We saw sandpipers and other interesting birds too. There were no mishaps on this kayak trip. Iris liked it about as much as she liked the last trip- very little. She just hunkered down into the kayak waiting for us to stop. We kayaked for a couple hours in the beautiful sun and had a great time.
We went to the restaurant in the campground for lunch, which allowed Iris to sit with us on the patio. The food was good. We wished we had gone there the night before, but we made up for it by going back for dinner that evening too. Mmmmm…pot roast. Nothing remarkable happened that evening, except that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I finished my book, to Mike’s relief. We returned home the next day.
The lessons we learned: the battery had no problem for our 2.5 days using it. We didn’t fill either tank but it was probably close on the gray water tank. We were careful in how we used it but still look showers in the Casita.
Campsite Summary:
5 hours from Beaverton. Electrical-only hookups first come, first served. Many trees, true camping experience. Dogs not allowed on park trails. Quiet, mellow and pretty. Small campsites.
Grade: B