Part 2

Possibly the most comprehensive view of the lake may be obtained from Cloud-cap, on the east rim. Its summit rises over 8,000 feet above the level of the sea and 2,000 feet above the lake. To the east is Mount Scott and to the north and west wide vistas of the summit of the range. On a clear day the shining surface of Klamath Lake may be seen far to the south, bordered with vast marshlands and the dark timber at the foot of the range, while farther south is the crown of beautiful Mount Shasta. The strange coloring of Crater Lake is well observed from Cloud-cap. In the sunlight there is play of clouds and soft shadows upon the surface of the lake. Purple hues, delicate lavender with violet blue, and deep streaks of emerald shading to a silvered green along the shores present a variation of color and beauty one may never hope to see elsewhere.

MOUNT SCOTT

East of Cloud-cap is Mount Scott, easily climbed and affording fine unobstructed views. The peak is the highest point within the park, reaching an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet. A fire lookout is located on the summit.

THE PINNACLES

Located in Wheeler Creek, near the east entrance of the park, are slender spires of pumice. Some of the needles are 200 feet in height. In Sand Creek Canyon and Godfrey’s Glen in Annie Creek Canyon there are additional spires and fluted columns carved out of the soft volcanic material by the erosion of water. As erosion continues the Pinnacles grow in height and new ones are slowly being formed.

During the summer of 1935, ranger naturalists discovered many small fumaroles near the top of the gray tuff and ash deposits of Wheeler Creek Canyon. Some of them are within the pinnacles themselves, regarded as proof that the deposits were once hot and of the nature of sand flows like those in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Alaska.

UNION PEAK

From the highway that mounts the Cascade Range from the west, one obtains a splendid view of Union Peak, 7 miles to the southwest of Crater Lake. It appears to have been placed on the top of the range to mark the burial place of a guide of Indian lore. This strange towering peak is the remaining neck of what was once an active volcano which played its part in the building of the Cascade Range. It is a landmark of unusual form among the peaks, rising 1,400 feet above the crest of the range and nearly 8,000 feel above sea level. Trail trips to Union Peak are among the finest offered in the Crater Lake area.

MOUNT THIELSEN

This great clifflike formation, rising to an elevation of 9,178 feet, is to the north of Crater Lake and outside of the park. It is a picturesque sight when seen from the heights surrounding the lake and is often referred to as the Matterhorn of the Cascade Range. It is the wreck remaining of a great mountain. The sharp summit of the peak has been shattered repeatedly by lightning, producing fused glassy surfaces and tortuous opening of the nature of fulgurite formations. To reach its sharp heights is difficult and requires experience in mountain climbing. Near the foot of Thielsen lies Diamond Lake.

LLAO’S HALLWAY

The Hallway, a gorge 125 feet deep cut through pumice material by stream erosion, is located on a tributary to Castle Creek just north of the White Horse campground on the Medford Road. There are numerous cave amphitheaters and narrow passageways along the trail which follows the bottom of the gorge.

CASTLE CREST WILD FLOWER GARDEN

Ideal for the study and viewing of Crater Lake flora, this garden is near Park Headquarters, 3 miles from the rim area. A half-mile trail winds through this area, alive with blooms throughout the summer season.

WILD ANIMALS

The park abounds with the smaller game species that are of great interest to the visitor because of their friendly inquisitiveness. Members of the squirrel family have learned that they will not be harmed and so are numerous along roads and trails and at any place where people congregate, knowing that in such surroundings they will find a wealth of tidbits.

With the possible exception of the bear, the larger mammals are fairly well represented but not numerous. Of the three deer species, the Columbia blacktail is most common. Also reported is the larger Rocky Mountain mule deer, and infrequently a band of whitetail deer may be discovered in one of the grassy, watered meadows. Elk have been noted along the eastern side of the park as far north as the base of Mount Scott. The visitor who sees them, however, is fortunate, as elk are rare in the park.

Bears, while they may be seen by the keen observer in many parts of the park, are most numerous around Park Headquarters and may be seen at almost any hour of the day foraging in the garbage pit nearby. Excepting a few brown individuals, they are the well-known black variety.

Sometimes as many as three cubs, attended by their mother, make their appearance. Visitors never tire of watching the antics of these little balls of fur as they frolic and play. An occasional disciplinary cuff administered by a watchful mother always causes much merriment among the spectators.

In the interest of safety, it is prohibited to feed the bears by hand. Too many persons have been painfully clawed doing so. Also it is well not to get between the mother and her cubs.

Others of the larger animals extant in the park, but seldom seen by the casual observer, are the cougar or mountain lion, the wolf, the coyote, and the red fox.

Most common and approachable are the friendly and gluttonous little golden-mantled ground squirrels. They stuff their cheeks with peanuts from the hands of visitors until they can hold no more, then scurry away, hurriedly cache the supply for future use, and come back for more. Numerous also, but not quite so trusting, are two species of chipmunks, easily distinguished from the golden-mantled squirrel. These little fellows seem charged with electric energy, darting to and fro, seemingly never quiet.

Basking on a warm rock or stodgily making his way among them, one will frequently see the marmot, whose kind is plentiful along all the roads and trails.

The hiker is constantly having his way challenged by the alert and exceedingly saucy little pine squirrel, who may be recognized by his very audacity. The porcupine is frequently observed as he waddles clumsily in search for food, which consists chiefly of succulent bark from young pine trees.

The shrill note of the cony or pika may often be heard on rocky slopes, but, unless he moves, it is almost impossible to discover him because of his wonderful protective coloration. These tiny animals may be seen at the foot of the Crater Wall Trail or along slopes of Garfield Peak.

Not quite so interesting, perhaps, but often seen, are badgers, gray squirrels, and snowshoe rabbits. Other furry little denizens not so frequently seen are the mink, flying squirrel, marten, and several species of mice. Gopher workings are common.

In only one place in the park, and that far off the beaten paths, lives a colony of beaver. These particular animals live in a bank burrow and have not built the big lodge familiarly associated with the name.

Due to the general elevation of the area, there are few reptiles. Salamanders are common on the lake shore and frogs and toads along the creeks.

BIRD LIFE

Great numbers of birds of many varieties have discovered that Crater Lake National Park is a sanctuary for them. There are more than 110 varieties in the park.

The Eagle Crags have furnished nesting places for the golden eagle and the southern bald eagle; Llao Rock is the home of falcons. Ospreys have been seen, and the dusky horned owl forages nightly. California gulls visit the park and Farallon cormorants are known to have nested and raised their young on the lake. There are ravens and half a dozen varieties of hawks. Canvasback and golden-eye ducks may be seen, and the Sierra grouse inhabits the timber lands. Clark’s crow and crested jays and gray jays make their presence known on the trails and around the campgrounds.

Smaller birds frequently seen are the mountain bluebird, Townsend solitaire, Sierra junco, pine siskin, Sierra creeper, red breasted nuthatch, mountain chickadee, and western evening grosbeak. There are golden and ruby-crowned kinglets, robins, wrens, wood and green-tailed towhees, purple and rosy finches, chipping and other sparrows, two varieties of thrushes, and five varieties of warblers. Occasionally a humming bird is seen.

The most noticeable of the small birds of the park is the western tanager, a brilliant streak of gold as he darts and flits in the dark foliage, and equally remarkable in coloring when he rests on twig or branch, where his red head, yellow body, and black wings with yellow bars are unmistakable. The sweetest singer in the park is the Sierra hermit thrush—shy, difficult to locate, but making his presence known by his beautiful song.

During migratory seasons, thousands of geese, including the Canadian, snow, and white-fronted varieties, fly over the park, taking advantage of a low pass over the Cascade mountains near Annie Spring. These birds make their flights in daylight hours, while numerous other varieties of waterfowl fly over at night.

FISHING

Angling amid scenes of towering, multicolored cliffs in heavily trout-stocked waters of deepest blue is an experience long to be remembered. Trout bite readily in Crater Lake and are caught in goodly numbers. These trout are not small nor do they submit easily after they are hooked. Trout as long as 36 inches have been caught; the average is around 2 pounds each and the length 16 inches.

The crystal-clear waters of the lake provide good fly fishing. Experienced fly casters have reported success many times, using a wide assortment of lures. During certain hours of the day fish jump lustily along the shore line, and here flies are placed to effective use. Trolling, however, is the popular method, with results satisfactory in most sections of the lake. Spoons or spinners are principally used, although plugs are occasionally a part of the tackle.

The limit of a day’s catch is 12 per person, extending during the summer season. No fishing license is necessary.

Although today Crater Lake literally teems with rainbow and silverside trout, in addition to a lesser number of steelhead, German brown, and speckled trout, some 50 years ago the lake was devoid of piscatorial life of any kind.

The first fish were planted September 1, 1888, by Judge William Gladstone Steel, but with little success. A few years later a California minister succeeded in planting 200 fingerlings, but after that plantings were rare for many years. Since the park was established in 1902, fish have been systematically planted, especially during the past decade. So well has this work been done that the lake is now abundantly stocked and care is being taken not to overstock this body of water.

The trout are largely dependent for food on an abundance of small crustaceans in the lake. Research carried on in 1934-36 revealed that while 53.7 percent of the food came from crustaceans, 47.1 percent of this classification was confined to Daphnia pulex (water fleas). The figures were determined after the examination of 224 trout stomachs. The water fleas are most commonly found at a depth of 75 feet and are the most abundant of several types of food found in the lake depths.

WINTER SPORTS

The 12 months accessibility of Crater Lake National Park has made possible the enjoyment of winter sports in rare settings of wintry splendor. Steep and gradual slopes, according to speeds desired, are numerous in the park and are ideal for skiing and tobogganing, the source of many thrills for amateur winter recreationists.

Professional snow meets in the park are not encouraged, but special attention is paid to amateur sports, making it possible for entire families to enjoy a day in the snow. Snow plows keep the south and west approach roads effectively cleared for comfortable motor travel between banks from 10 to 20 feet high in midwinter. Rangers are on constant duty during the winter season to render service to visitors. Lodging and food accommodations are within 20 miles of either side of the park.

In addition to snow sports, visitors have the opportunity of viewing Crater Lake in a raiment of white, accentuating the mystic beauty of its unbelievably blue waters and its encircling, towering cliffs of multitudinous colors in close harmony with the pristine appeal of the mountain wonder.

Inspiring to behold in the greenery of summer, Crater Lake robed in the white silences of winter is a magic scene of color, vastness, and mystery never to be forgotten.

THE FORESTS

Untouched by the hand of man, except for insect and tree disease control, and carefully guarded against the ravages of fire, the forests of Crater Lake form one of the park’s principal attractions. This is true not only from a scenic standpoint and a never-failing interest for tree lovers, but also because of the vast acres of magnificent stands.

Of the considerable number of trees within the park, the majority are cone bearers. Some of these extend down the western slope well outside the boundary. The lower species meet and mingle with such broad-leaved trees as oak, maple, and madrone. Entering the lowest part of the park in the southwest corner via the deep canyon of Redblanket Creek are several trees not generally known to occur within the area. These include Brewer oak (_Quercus oerstediana_), western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_), madrone (_Arbutus menziesii_), Pacific yew (_Taxus brevifolia_), golden chinquapin (_Castanopsis chrysophylla_), bigleaf maple (_Acer macrophyllum_), and Pacific dogwood (_Cornus nuttallii_).

The mountain hemlock (_Tsuga mertensiana_) is characteristic of the Crater Lake region, its stately trunks, drooping limbs, and feathery foliage providing woodland beauty that is never forgotten. It is common to the inner wall of the crater and seeks high altitudes on mountain peaks, where its growth is stunted and its limbs beaten down by storms. An imposing stand greets the visitor at Annie Spring, continuing on both sides of the highway to the rim, its large trunks suggestive of the hundreds of years these trees have been growing undisturbed in their mountain fastness. Here, indeed, is the forest in all of its pristine glory. It occurs in heavy stands along the road around the lake, enhancing the beauty of the Rim Drive. The great trunks crowd each other for space beneath the shade of their lofty crowns.

An outstanding tree of the park is the whitebark pine (_Pinus albicaulis_), often short and stunted and grotesquely twisted, fringing the rim and crowning the highest crests. It illustrates best among trees the stern struggle for existence. The lodgepole pine (_Pinus contorta_), most prolific of the park’s conifers, covers thousands of acres of dense stand and extends down the cool canyons to and beyond the park boundaries. The Shasta red fir (_Abies magnifica shastensis_), a stately tree with its regularly meshed branches and large bract-covered cones, is an abundant tree scattered throughout the hemlock forest.

The western white pine (_Pinus monticola_), while usually a middle-sized tree, furnishes the largest individual in the park, having a diameter of approximately 8 feet. More abundant along water courses and about wet meadows, can be seen the slender spires of the alpine fir (_Abies lasiocarpa_). In some places this tree continues over the rim to the inner wall of the crater. Engelmann spruce (_Picea engelmannii_) is usually confined to the bottoms of deep canyons. Other trees include the white fir (_Abies concolor_), Douglas fir (_Pseudotsuga taxifolia_), and sugar pine (_Pinus lambertiana_), all companions of the ponderosa pine.

Another species in the park is the incense cedar (_Libocedrus decurrens_). While this tree is not common, it is not hard to find, one prominant group being on the motorway 3 miles west of Hillman Peak. Several of the specimens are as large as 4½ feet in diameter.

Further enhancing the beauty of the park woodlands are a few broad-leaved trees and a large variety of attractive shrubs and undergrowth. No less than nine willows, two alders, and a maple are among the more abundant and conspicuous shrubs which fringe the streams and clothe the meadows. The timid aspens (_Populus tremuloides_) grow beside the larger trees of the cone-bearing species, their small roundish leaves trembling in mountain breezes. The black cottonwoods (_Populus trichocarpa_) also mingle with the evergreen trees in the deep canyons.

Many travelers visit Crater Lake, view the majestic splendor of the world-famed scenic wonder, and leave without realizing the beauties of the forest lands about them. A visit to the park is assuredly most complete after pleasant summer nights spent encamped under the spreading limbs of its stately hemlocks, pines, and firs. The sweet aroma of the woods, their carpeted floors and rustling leaves, add much to the joy and inspiration of a visit.

WILD FLOWERS

With a list of over 570 flowering plants and ferns, Crater Lake’s richness in species and individuals compares favorably with other national parks. This is not at first apparent to the visitor. If he enters by the usual gateways and travels the beaten paths, he may even be disappointed in the flowers. Over much of the region, all of which is volcanic, the soil is made up chiefly of fine pumice sand, and for most of the growing season is lacking in moisture. So perforce the plant life must be limited to those forms whose peculiar structure adapt them to such environment. To many, however, this situation only lends variety and adds peculiar interest. Pleasing to the eye are the massed color effects in the open spaces and the drier forest areas. Wherever the highway enters the regions of the streams, these massed effects increase, and one is gladdened by the transformation due to water’s magic touch. If the visitor travels the many byroads and winding trails to the mountain meadows beside the singing brooks, or by boat along the rocky shore of the lake, he will find gardens of transcendent beauty. No more enchanting ones can be found than Castle Crest Gardens at park headquarters and Talus Garden under the towering walls of Cloud-cap, or lovelier spots than Boundary Springs and Copeland Creek along the western slope of old Mount Mazama.

Soon after entering the park, the attention is caught by bright flashes of the scarlet trumpets of the mountain gilia (_G. aggregata_), the pineland paintbrush (_Castilleja pinetorum_), and the abundant white sprays of the snowbrush (_Ceanothus velutinus_). Sheltered by the denser and more somber forests farther along are noteworthy representatives of the heath family, such as prince’s pine (_Chimaphila umbellata_) and several species of _Pyrola_, some of the latter with the usual green leaves, yet others without such foliage. Several near relatives belong to this class of leafless saprophites which obtain their food by feeding on decaying vegetation, as, for examples, the tall brownish pine drops (_Pterospora andromedea_) and the snow-white phantom orchid (_Cephalanthera austinae_).

Responding to the influence of the diversity of topography and soil and moisture conditions, various types of flowers are abundantly represented around park headquarters. Near at hand on the first bare spots among the snowdrifts, cheerful harbingers of spring, come the lovely wind-flowers (_Anemone occidentalis_) with cups of white, and the strikingly beautiful yellow lamb’s tongue (_Erythronium grandiflorum pallidum_). Stone crop (_Gormania watsonii_) covers the rock ledges, and finest of the rock-loving plants, the pink pentstemon (_P. rupicola_) drapes the rock walls in company with the lace fern (_Cheilanthes gracillima_). Delicate bog orchids (_Lemnorchis_), elephant heads (_Pedicularis groenlandica_), masses of yellow and pink monkey-flowers (_Mimulus_), banks of daisy-like fleabane (_Erigeron salsuginosus_), giant ragwort (_Senecio triangularis_), and a host of others fill the wet meadows and line the streams. On the talus slopes are long strips of Arnica (_A. longifolia_). In openings in the hemlock forest the ever abundant narrow-leaved aster (_A. ledophyllus_) presents a field of purple with intermingled pink fireweed (_Epilobium angustifolium_) and the tall corn lily or false hellebore (_Veratrum_ _viride_), while the surrounding forest floor is carpeted with the grasslike turf of the smooth wood-rush (_Funcoides glabratrum_), the most abundant herbaceous plant of the upper forests. In the open pumice fields of the rim area, Douglas phlox (_Phlox douglasii_), sulphur flower (_Eriogonum umbellatum_), and the low desert lupine (_Lupinus aridus_) contribute to the varied color scheme, later transformed into red and gold by the autumnal foliage of Newberry’s knotweed (_Polygonum newberryi_).

Over the crater’s rim, down the trail to the lake, one is attracted to the trailing raspberry (_Rubus lasiococcus_), clothing the steep banks, and the spiny currant (_Ribes lacustre_), prostrate on the rock walls. Abundant on the lower part of the trail and rocky shore of the lake, the large rose-pink flowers of Lewis’ monkey-flower (_Mimulus lewisii_) are the most conspicuous and striking features of the vegetation.

Across the blue water, even in the more forbidding lavas of Wizard Island, one is greeted at the boat landing by many fine clumps of bleeding heart (_Dicentra formosa_). A little distance along the trail leading up the island cone, the parrot’s beak (_Pedicularis racemosa_) is seen under the spreading hemlocks. At the summit, crowning the rim of the miniature crater, emulating the volcanic fires of old, grow the flaming paintbrushes (_Castilleja applegatei_), mainly restricted to the Crater Lake region. Other plants less showy, sending their long roots deep into the cinders and pumice, reach for moisture and struggle for a foothold in the unstable rock material of the precipitous slope.

HOW TO REACH THE PARK

BY RAILROAD

The Southern Pacific Railroad serves Crater Lake National Park. The company runs its finest trains over the Cascade route passing through Klamath Falls and also operates regular service over the Siskiyou route passing through Medford, west of the park. The Cascade route comes within a few miles east of the park boundary. Connections with Crater Lake automobile stages are made daily at Medford and Klamath Falls from July 1 to September 20.

BY AUTOMOBILE

The automobile approaches to the park are exceptionally fine. Motorists on the Pacific Highway, going north, have the choice of turning off at Weed in northern California, proceeding to Klamath Falls and then to Crater Lake over The Dalles-California Highway, or proceeding on to Medford over the Pacific Highway and then to Crater Lake, 80 miles distant. Southbound visitors on the Pacific Highway turn off at Medford, as well as motorists arriving from California by way of the Redwoods Highway, which has its junction with the Pacific Highway at Grants Pass.

Travelers to the park from Medford arrive by way of the west entrance and from Klamath Falls by way of the south entrance. Those from Bend, Oreg., 106 miles from Crater Lake, use the well-improved approach via the north entrance, bringing motorists near Diamond Lake while en route to the park. This route is rapidly growing in importance. The east entrance also provides for travel from Bend and The Dalles-California Highway and is usually open earlier in the season due to less snowfall.