O to P to Q to R: Chemult, OR to Crater Lake National Park to Diamond Lake to Fort Rock, OR
August 2, 2011
Max woke first and tried to make coffee before the mosquitoes returned. No use, they were waiting for us - so we packed up quickly and drove to Chemult to have breakfast and watch Sam chainsaw a log into Bigfoot. We found the Big Mountain Cafe and Sam. He had the log blocked out and was beginning to cut. You couldn't quite tell it was Bigfoot yet. We had a delightfully large breakfast, including some special spuds that were covered in gravy. Sam mentioned that Diamond Lake was also quite pretty, and not too far from Crater Lake NP.
We drove south to the park, used our Annual Pass to gain entry and slowly started to drive around the rim of the lake. Our guidebook mentioned that Kodak used to send back developed photos of the lake with a note apologizing for the color quality - they couldn't believe how blue it was. Crater Lake, due to its incredible depth, is amazingly blue. The park was also amazingly crowded for a Tuesday, and each pull off was filled with people, especially the parking lot to walk down to the lake's edge. We had thought it would be fun to go swimming and fishing there, but it looked way to overloaded. We did enjoy the gift shop where we bought and sent postcards to our friends and family and found the book Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn't Die by Cheewa James. One of our goals on this trip was to learn more about the Modoc war and this seemed to be an interesting account of the events leading up to, during and after the most expensive Indian War the US Government ever engaged in. We completed the drive around the rim and headed north towards Diamond Lake, hoping it would be less populated. The lake was beautiful and Max found a place to buy a fishing license, so we started looking for a good place to fish from. The first campground we pulled into had notices posted warning that Diamond Lake was experiencing green blue algae blooms and warned us not to go swimming and that fish caught had to be scaled. Bummer - so we didn't get to swim, but Max practiced casting and was not too disappointed that he didn't catch anything. It was still early in the afternoon, and we felt like we had enough of the lakes, so we drove back north through Chemult (where we ran into our new friend Sam again at the Pilot Travel Center) towards the start of Oregon's Outback Scenic Byway (US 31) in La Pine, OR. We thought we had limited time, as our plan for a place to stay that night was to go to Fort Rock, OR and ask around... so we made an uncharacteristically hasty (for this trip) decision and skipped seeing the nearby Hole-in-the-Ground. We turned off US 31 towards Fort Rock, looking for the "Waterin' Hole" - a bar that Emily had found mentioned on the internet as a place with a gravel parking lot next to it that we might be able to boondock in. We were the only customers at the bar, had a beer and played some pool while talking the very affable bartender about the area. She made us sign the wall with our names - many people apparently come through this tiny town. She suggested Thompson Reservoir near Silver Lake as a potential campspot, but then decided that there was no reason we shouldn't just be able to camp right next to Fort Rock. She told us to tell anyone that bothered us that the owner of the bar said it was cool. We thanked her for the advice and drove over to the parking area of the monument. Ralph, the camp host, told us that we could park anywhere but in the parking area and directed us to a pull off right at the base of the rock a little ways down the road. We ate noodle bowls, watched the sunset and read from the Modoc book and planned to wake early to catch the golden hour at Fort Rock.
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