It was a day of scenic drives, fantastic views, and amazing hikes for our second day at Crater Lake.

East Rim Drive

Normally, one can drive the entire rim around Crater Lake, but part of the East Rim Drive around the southern part of the lake is currently closed due to construction. We really wanted to see as much of the lake as possible from all different directions, so we drove back north from the Mazama Campground in the far southwest part of the park to get on the East Rim Drive and take it around the north and east sides of the lake. This meant that we would have to back track on the same road to get back to the campground. As you can see from the map below, this really added to our day’s travel, but we really didn’t mind since it’s such a scenic drive with places to stop and look.

The biggest construction project, in addition to the rim road, is the Cleetwood Cove Trail and boat dock. This work is taking three summers, so there are no boat tours or any way to get down to the lake water at all until the summer of 2029. No swimming in the freezing clear water until then.

The evening before, we received several alerts on our watches and phones (you know, the Amber alert type ones that make you jump out of your skin because they are so loud and vibrating). In Iowa, we get Amber alerts as well as tornado warnings, but here they use the same alerting system for forest fires. During the day on Thursday a fire had broken out in Jackson County, Oregon causing several BE READY, BE SET, and GO NOW alerts for different zones in the area. I’m sure it’s important to know your particular zone if you live in or near a forest.

I quickly looked up the location and found that the fires were less than 70 miles west of Crater Lake with the wind blowing in our direction. Naturally, this caused us some concern since we’re not used to these types of disasters, but assumed the park rangers would let us know if we needed to take any action. I mention this, mainly because we could see the evidence of the fires in the air as we journeyed north around the lake today. The smoke added another layer, gray in color, on the horizon making for some unique photos, but ones we could have done without knowing the source.

Phantom Ship

In addition to Wizard Island, the only other visible outcropping of Crater Lake is known as Phantom Ship. It can be seen from all sides of the lake, but we stopped at one of the observation points on the East Rim Drive to get a closer look.

The Pinnacles Hike

We went as far as we could go on East Rim Drive before we ran into the road construction mentioned above. However, a construction worker said we could still make the turn onto the 6-mile Pinnacles Road that leads southeast towards the Pinnacles Trail. We parked in a lot on the rim of Wheeler Creek canyon, donned our hiking gear, and took off to see the rock formations for which the road and trail are named for. These were definitely some of the best pinnacles we’ve seen. They are very striking with such a variety of shapes and different colors. The pinnacles were formed from the same cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Mazama that formed Crater Lake. They are the vent paths where the hot gases and steam escaped. The heat compressed the volcanic ash and pumice. Later, wind and water eroded away the softer ash around them leaving them to rise up here from the ravine in all their glory. We were early enough that we had the trail and views to ourselves, which is unusual for a national park.

In addition to the pinnacles, we found the Golden Ground Squirrels to be very numerous in this area. They can easily be mistaken for chipmunks, except their heads are solid reddish brown, without stripes. The younger ones are simply adorable and not as quick to run away from us as the older ones. We were able to catch the photos and video seen below.

At the very end of the Pinnacles Trail is the park border. Although there is no road that leads into the park from here, there is the base for the east entrance park sign that once hung here. Like the north entrance park sign, it too has mysteriously(?) disappeared.

Plaikni Falls

Making our way back to the East Rim Drive, we stopped at the Plaikni Falls Trailhead to hike to the popular Plaikni Waterfall. There were no other vehicles in the small parking lot when we pulled in, and we were very fortunate to enjoy our time at the falls alone. We ran into several groups heading to the falls on our hike back out. Great timing!

While ground squirrels were the creature of our previous hike, the butterfly was this hike’s highlight. There were two patches in the sun near the falls where groups of tiny, blue/purple butterflies were hanging out. As we walked by they swarmed into the air before settling back down to same spot in the sun. We tried to photograph and get video of them in flight, but they were too tiny to be seen. There were also lots of dragonflies in the air above the water.

Another highlight on the way to the falls was spotting a historic-looking trail marker embedded into one of the pine trees. I asked Gemini on my phone to identify it and received the following:

“That is a classic, vintage Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) marker!

The text stamped into the weathered yellow metal reads “PACIFIC CREST TRAIL” surrounding the stylized logo in the center. You’ve caught a perfect example of a tree “eating” a sign—a phenomenon sometimes called intussusception or simply tree inclusion.

The falls themselves and the surrounding area were amazing! We were able to reach down into the water and it was so cold you couldn’t keep your hand in the water for more than a few seconds at a time. The area is lush with ferns and wild flowers. Well worth the drive and easy hike to get here.

Cloudcap Overlook

After stopping at one of the pullouts overlooking the lake for lunch, we took another side road from the East Rim Drive up to the Cloudcap Overlook. It is the highest road-accessible overlook in the park and provides a Western view across Crater Lake. This lookout was windy and cold.

Annie Creek Canyon Trail

After a long rest back at the campgrounds, we set off on foot to take the Annie Creek Canyon Trail hike. Pamphlets provided at the trailhead provided a numbered, self-guided tour down into a canyon that led us along a fast-moving stream and over foot bridges. It’s a real gem of a hike hiding behind the park’s campground.

Annie Creek Restaurant

After our busy day, we were pretty much exhausted so we ate at the Annie Creek Restaurant right next to the campground. Last thing on the agenda for the day was to determine where we were headed to next as we don’t have any reservations planned ahead of time from here on out.