Crater Lake National Park
I visited Crater Lake National Park on one of my solo excursions. It was one of those places I wished I had shared with someone else. The color of the lake matched the bluest of skies as I walked along the rim, a blue so intense it almost felt unreal.
There are no rivers flowing in or out of Crater Lake. The lake exists almost entirely on its own, fed by rain and snow. This purity is what gives it its extraordinary color and clarity. Standing at its rim, you are looking down nearly 2,000 feet into the remains of a collapsed volcano.
The story of this place stretches more than 7,700 years, when Mount Mazama erupted in one of the most violent volcanic events in North America. The eruption emptied the magma chamber beneath the mountain, causing the summit to collapse inward and form the massive caldera that now holds Crater Lake. Over centuries, snowmelt and rainfall slowly filled the basin, creating what is now the deepest lake in the United States.
Crater Lake officially became a national park on May 22, 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt signed the legislation establishing it as America’s firth national park. Roosevelt, a passionate conservationist, understood the importance of protecting this awe-inspiring landscape.
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