Mile 996 - Crater Lake National Park, CA

Question: What to you get when you cross a volcanic eruption with rain?  Answer: CRATER LAKE!  

Your word for the day: Caldera. This is the name for the crater that is formed after a volcanic explosion or collapse of a volcanic cone. 

Glad we weren't there 7000+ years ago when this happened!  But we were very glad to be there today to experience the beautiful remains!  It's the highest lake in the US and it's also the cleanest.  There are no rivers feeding into or out of it so it's filled by snow melt and rain water only...so clean! 

One word to sum up our feelings about it: BLUE!  It was the deepest, bluest blue we've ever seen, sorry Tahoe.  

We started they day by climbing Mt. Scott, the highest point around the crater.  Boy what views we had! 

That made us nice and warm so we then hiked down to the water and went for a swim!  The water was unreal in how blue it was. If we hadn't seen it, we couldn't have imagined it. The best was going under water and opening our eyes to look around.  Guess what we saw....BLUE!  

We ended the day by doing something neither of us had done in over 15 years...used a payphone!  Without cell signal, it was our only way to call Annalisa and wish her a Happy 30th Birthday!!!  So glad I have the coolest, funniest sister in the world!  Love you, Anno!  Happy Birthday!

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