Day 17 (Monday wk 3)

Day 17. Can't believe it is time to think about coming back toward Tennessee! Hard to believe we have been gone 2 weeks already! We are not tired of it yet!

We left Roseburg this morning with a little warmer start to the day. It was 60 by the time we got started toward Crater Lake. We rode two lane highways again all the way to Crater Lake. We followed the Umpqua River for a long time. Diamond Lake is in close proximity to Crater Lake, but is not as pretty as Crater.

We are so glad we decided to visit Crater Lake! It is a most beautiful lake that was created, "they" say, 7500 years ago when a volcano erupted and somehow the lake was created. It is surrounded on all sides by mountains so there is no swimming or boating or recreation of any kind in the lake water. It is 1946 feet deep. The color is amazing! It is a beautiful (vibrant for those of you who are Retreads) blue that has varying shades according to where you look. There is one small pool of turquoise color and the shades run from that to a darker blue. The pictures MAY do justice, but it is really beautiful in person! It has become another of our favorites! We have a growing list of favorites now and it would be hard to say what is the #1 favorite.


We also found snow today! As we entered the Park, we saw a small amount on the side of the road, so, of course, we had to take a picture! The further up the mountain we got, though, the more snow we saw. It was probably up to 6 feet deep in places. The pictures will show it on the side of the road and also in a large field that still had lots of snow. It was hard to decide which pictures to use because we have a million this time! LOL

It is the middle of June and there is still snow? Unbelievable! They have so much snow here, though, that the road signs are way up on poles that are probably 12-15 feet high. One showed a speed limit of 45 and I told Pam that I would like to see somebody do 45 MPH in the snow on these roads! LOL

There was a mountain spire that came to a sharp point that we think was called Mt. Thielson that was interesting to see. A mountain range after we left the Park was still covered in snow and was high enough that the mountains were in the clouds. It was another amazing sight to see -clouds lower than the mountain top. Really a beautiful sight.


This United States of America is such a beautiful country that during several of our stops over the last 2 weeks, we have heard people from all over the world speaking every kind of language that you could think of and then some! We were beginning to think we were the only Americans out here! The National Parks are where we especially noticed this.

When we left Crater Lake, we decided to go toward Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens. We did make a Wal-Mart stop today and also stopped at Sportsman's Warehouse. From the name of it, we thought we would find all kinds of good prices, but there really were none. Pam needed another pair of hiking socks and she found a pair, but they were priced like any other sporting goods store. So, if you ever travel out here, you won't have to wonder - we have already found out for you! LOL

We have stopped for the night in Madras, Oregon, because it is another 2 hours to the next big city with motels. It is looking like rain and we are hoping that if it does rain, it will do so tonight. We need sunshine and blue skies tomorrow. The last time we visited Mount St. Helens, it was fogged in and Pam did not get to see it.

ADDENDUM: Hey, Bobby and Sonya! We see that you finally caught up with us! We even got a picture of your moped, but we couldn't find you! Apparently, you decided to take a hike and we couldn't wait any longer, so we went on ahead. If you catch up with us again, please wait! LOL