I was really excited for today…hiking the rim of Crater Lake!

This was my 6am shot shortly after I left camp.

I had gotten some intel about some snow on the way up to the lake but it was nothing too bad and easy to navigate through.

The best part about the approach to the lake is that you don’t see anything until you are basically right there…what a view!

I spent a couple hours hanging out at the Crater Lake Lodge back porch overlooking the lake.
I found a great spot with a table and an outlet to charge batteries! My resupply box was waiting for me (thanks Katy+Todd!) I basically sat back and enjoyed the view…

with 100 of my closest friends (it is a summer weekend!). I bumped into some weekend hikers I had briefly chatted with several days ago on trail. They summited one of the neighboring Peaks and were now playing tourist.

Spectacular! The extinct volcano used to be almost 12,000′ tall and blew its top and lost almost 4000′ of mountain. The lake is ~2000′ deep in places and the water is measured to be the clearest in the world.

The rim trail had a couple sections of snow but nothing terrible.

This is a closeup of Wizard Island.

Crazy how much snow there is on the side of the road. They just opened the full road loop around the lake this weekend.

I bumped into a bunch of hikers I had met mile ~400…a trail family for a night.

The small campfire did a good job of keeping the ferocious mosquitoes in check.

Not sure if this pano shot of the lake will load, but I will give it a try.