Crater Lake National Park – Review

The deepest (and arguably blue-est) lake in North America: Crater Lake. Do the pictures tell the whole story?

What is it?

A lake that is very deep and very blue.

Fast Facts:

Location: Southern Oregon

Founded: 1902

Size: 286.29 square miles

Cost: $30/car; $55/year¹ (Just buy the $80 America the Beautiful pass if it is in your budget – full access to every national park for a year)

Visited: 2019

The Ridley Review:

“Just something to look at and leave” states an irate Yelp reviewer. I mean, I guess they aren’t technically wrong. When visiting, one DOES look at the lake and one DOES presumably leave at some point. I think most visitors tend to get a tad more out of Crater Lake than that though.

Crater Lake is deceptively remote. 90 minutes from Bend, OR and Medford, OR, as well as 2+ hours from Eugene, OR by car. Once inside the park, you need to drive a further 30 or so minutes depending on traffic just to reach the Big Kahuna itself. Once you finally make it, however, you are treated to a sight that goes well beyond what pictures make it out to be. The blue really do be blue-ing – it is intense how deeply royal the water is. Couple that with the size: pictures don’t convey the vastness of the lake. Wizard Island island, just sitting there all sassy in the lake, is an amazing anomaly.

How it formed is an amazing story: thousands of years ago, a volcano sitting on the site named Mount Mazama² blew it’s top and the lake formed in the crater it left. Wholly self-contained, no rivers flow into the lake, which gets it’s water from precipitation.

The rest of the park, which consists of many acres beyond the lake on all sides, can best be described as “Generic Cascade”. That doesn’t mean it isn’t pretty – it’s gorgeous in fact – but it lakes the “wow” factor of the lake itself.

On a personal level, Crater Lake seems to have it out for my family. My father’s family visited back in the 1980’s, and pea soup fog rolled in the one day they had there. While they never saw much of the lake, I was able to go on a clear day in 2019. Even then though, the lake pulled two punches. There had been a late Spring dumping of snow, which rendered most of the road that circles the lake impassible. In addition, the person I was traveling with aggravated an injury climbing up to an overlook on an icy trail, which necessitated our quick departure. With that, I saw very little of the lake and spent but an hour there, hence the fewer pictures on this review than others.

The Layout

A circle (Crater Lake) inside a square (the park boundaries). Three different entrance options: from the North by Diamond Lake off of Highway 138, from the West near Union Creek via Highway 62 (can take I5 to Medford and exit there), and from the Southeast near Fort Klamath, also via Highway 62 that can be reached by State Route 97.

All three entrances lead up to Crater Lake itself, and the Rim Drive circles the lake, providing some dope views along the way and many trailheads and places to park.

Transportation

You must use your own transportation inside the park.

Activities

As a cold, high elevation park, Crater Lake has opportunities for Winter fun, namely in the form of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

In the warmer months, hiking leads the way (as always), with biking the Rim Drive a common activity as well. Fishing and swimming are also allowed in the lake, as well as any other bodies of water in the park.

Roads and Gas

There is a gas station that operates seasonally at the main store/restaurant/lodge area of the park.

All three entrances listed above are connected by the Rim Drive, so you can enter and exit through any of them. Note that is a HAUL from one to the other outside the park – when I visited, the Northern entrance was closed and it took an additional 90 minutes to reach the Southeastern entrance. Mazama Village, located on the Southern side of the Rim Drive, houses almost all amenities in the park.

Rating:

A genuine One-Trick Pony, but what a trick it has. Truly like no other place on Earth – probably in the tier of parks you would want to visit as opposed to need to visit, but you won’t regret it.

Food & Lodging

Food

Lots of food options available “in season”, which runs from roughly May-September. 2 full service restaurants: one in the Lodge and another within the Mazama Village that the Lodge and other shops and the general store are located in. There is a quick grab-and-go cafe and a general store as well. Both the quick service cafe and the Lodge restaurant are open all year round.

Lodging

Hotels

Crater Lake Lodge is the only full hotel on park grounds. As usual, you pay for location: $260/night to be exact as of this writing.

There are also some homey cabins you can rent in the Mazama Village. While I can’t find prices for 2024, per Trip Advisor they hang around the $175/night range.

Outside the park, there are several more reasonably priced hotels within a 40 minute drive of each entrance station.

Camping

We got options folks³! Well, two of them plus backcountry, that is.

Mazama Campground, located in the Mazama Village area, is open in the Summer and costs $21/night, with additional fees if you bring an RV. The season is super short: June-September. Note that in-season bookings are done through this site, not the usual recreation.gov website.

Lost Creek Campground, closed this year, is located in the Southeastern portion of the park. Spots typically cost $5 a night, with an equally short season of operating: July-October usually. Spots are first come, first serve.

To backcountry camp, you need a (free) permit. Contact the park for more deets.

Hikes and attractions:

A lil’ fun fact: the PCT runs right through this park. Several trails are a part of the larger Pacific Crest Trail.

Major Hikes

Discovery Point – 2.0 mile easy round trip from the Village to a grand overlook of the Lake

Rim Trail – Nearly circumnavigates the Lake, nearly in conjunction with the Rim Drive.

Mount Scott – moderate 4.4 mile trail leading to the highest peak in the park, with a complete view of Crater Lake.

Other Activities

Biking or driving the Rim Drive!

National Park Rankings

1. Yosemite National Park
2. Olympic National Park
3. Zion National Park
4. Mount Rainier National Park
5. Bryce Canyon National Park
6. Arches National Park
7. Canyonlands National Park
8. Crater Lake National Park
9. Indiana Dunes National Park
10. Shenandoah National Park
11. Capitol Reef National Park
12. Acadia National Park
13. Redwood National Park
14. Pinnacles National Park
15. Cuyahoga Valley National Park

A note: as with all reviews to come, this will be updated upon any re-visit to the park. Feel free to comment or send in your own reviews or recommendations and we will get it added here!

1. NPS site ↩︎
2. History lesson ↩︎
3. https://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/eatingsleeping.htm ↩︎