Hike Pilot Butte in Bend and snow play at Crater Lake

31 May 07 Thursday// Pilot Butte in Bend, Oregon

Pilot Butte State Park.
By 10am it was already a hot morning but that didn't stop us from hiking this 511-foot volcanic cindercone. Cat took her two boys in the BOB and Greg stowed Kai in the backpack. Not only could you hike there but cars could drive up just as well to see the summit. Every year they have a race and I read that a woman in her 90's made it to the summit in 24 minutes. Amazing! I want to be that active at that age, otherwise Greg agreed to take me out to a field, let me loose, and then shoot me to end my misery.

A map at the top of Pilot Butte to help identify the surrounding mountains.

Kai, Greg, and Arleen with Mt. Bachelor on the left and the Three Sister Mountains on the right.

Kai passed out asleep. Look at those eyelashes!
So we bid our farewells to the Conger family and later hunkered down for lunch at the river park in the historic part of downtown Bend.

CRATER LAKE: We headed south on 97, west on 138, then south again on 62. Greg got excited when he saw snow and insisted I take a picture. In no time we went from extremely hot to cool weather as we neared Crater Lake.

With Kai still asleep in the van, we checked out Crater Lake (at Devils Backbone) while in our flip-flops and shorts as the sun beat down on us. My head was hot and my feet were cold, what a combination.

A stitched panorama of Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is 5 miles wide and surrounded by cliffs almost 2,000-feet high. The lake, made of rain and melted snow, exists in the remnants of a volcano, Mount Mazama, that once stood in its place 7,700 years ago. Later eruptions formed Wizard Island that you see to the right in the picture above. Crater Lake is the deepest in the US and one of the deepest in the world with a depth of 1,943. In addition, its waters is one of the purest and most pristine in the world.

Kai, finally awake, doesn't take to the camera.

Taken from the southern part of the lake before heading out.

Greg props Kai in a popcorn bowl almost too small to fit his little hiney. We had staged this same shot last year in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado when he was only 3-months old- to make it look as if he was tobagganing.

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Since the park was closed to camping, we continued on until we found Collier State Park off Hwy 97. There we were eaten alive by mosquitos! and were forced to stay in the van for the remainder of the night despite how warm it was indoors...