Crater Lake
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

Crater Lake is Oregon’s only national park and one of the first places I visited when I moved to this state 20 years ago. It’s hard to imagine a more dramatic setting for a lake than the inside of an extinct volcano. And then there’s that blue – the bluest blue imaginable.

Chipmunks!
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

Being an aficionado of all things colorful, Lewis was excited to see the bluest blue imaginable. Unfortunately, the water wasn’t very blue by the time we got our first look. The sun was already too low in the sky to fully illuminate it. Lewis’ disappointment was quickly transformed into excitement by the appearance of a pair of chipmunks, his favorite creatures. We came prepared for this occasion with a bag of unsalted sunflower seeds.

Heading Down to a Viewpoint
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

Sunset
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

In some ways, Crater Lake is a one hit wonder. The primary activity is driving a 33 mile loop around the crater rim and taking in a similar view from each stop. Most visitors are in and out in less than four hours. Yet each viewpoint is unique and the appearance of the lake does change throughout the day, leaving photographers with an interesting exercise in perception and composition.

This would be the first time we stayed overnight in the park, thus it would be our first sunset and sunrise experiences here as well. I was hoping for a little more drama than what I had witnessed a day earlier at Sparks Lake. We ended up with a few clouds to catch the color of the setting sun.

Tree Silhouettes
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

Ironically, this is the image I was most excited about at the end of the day; it didn’t even include Crater Lake. We were on our way to our campsite when we passed this stand of three trees with no place to pull over and quickly fading light. I ended up running along the edge of a shoulder-less road that dropped off to nothing with camera and tripod, at once trying to avoid oncoming traffic as well as stepping off the edge. In the end, it was neither the traffic nor the edge that got me; it was the mosquitoes. More than one of the little buggers enjoyed a nice supper at my expense.

Sunrise
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

The next morning I arose before dawn to drive to my chosen sunrise location. The drama that I had hoped for the previous evening arrived late. A summer storm bringing plenty of lightning but little rain passed over us leaving clouds in its wake. This left me hopeful that we might have clouds the following morning. Obviously, we did.

We nearly had too many clouds. As I set up my tripod along the crater rim, it wasn’t clear if we would get a sunrise at all through the heavy layers of clouds. Fortunately, there was the tiniest gap between the horizon and the cloud cover that, for just a few moments, allowed the sun to shine through and light up the top of the west rim and the bottom of the lowest layer of clouds in glorious hot pink!

Ray of Light
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – August 2010

This image, taken from a different viewpoint 30 minutes after sunrise, shows just the tiniest sliver of light as it moved along the crater’s western rim. After a few minutes, it was gone. Soon, we would be too – on our way to the Oregon coast.

previous image set: Todd Lake
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