Trip to Crater Lake

Feb 19, 2006

Aparna had come from Los Angeles for the weekend on Firday night and we wanted to go out somewhere but not sure where. We wanted to explore up north and had already been to the Lassen volcanic national park area. The first thing we did Saturday morning was to call up all the nearby rental locations for a car, but the only car we could find was a convertible. Ironic considering it would be freezing cold up in Northen California at this time of the year.

Once having picked up the car, we opened the Rand McNally to look for an interesting place to go up North. We found the crater lake on the Map and read about it on the internet. It is the deepest lake in the western hemi-sphere and the third deepest in the world. It looked beautiful! Crater lake is about 500 miles from San Jose (I was staying in San Jose with Bana then) and would take about 9 hours or so to reach. The concern however, was that it would be freezing cold and snow covered near Oregon at this time of the year and it was also not clear if the Crater lake would be accessible in our two wheel drive convertible with all the snow.

"Well no smart and forward planning person must have tried this, so perhaps we should try it out," I suggested. Aparna agreed and so it was decided that we will drive up north towards Crater lake and if we are unable to access Crater Lake because of the snow, we shall drive back. The drive should be fun in the least and we will know that it can't be done during this time of the year in a car like ours.

We started a bit early, since driving at night in snow would add to the challenge significantly. We took 101N, 680N, 80E, 505N to get to 5N. The stretch of drive on 5N is about 200 miles and is quite scenic in the Northen California as we pass close to the Shasta Lake area. At Weed we took 97N towards Klamath Lake.

We had made no reservations for our overnight stay and as we drove on 97, we realised that 97 passes through a pretty desolate area and it may be very hard to find even small town with people least we find a motel to stay overnight. Nevertheless I was optimistic and argued that, even if there is one or two motel we will find some accommodation, since no one will be planning to go to Crater lake at this time of the year and even if they do they will probably not find any of these motels on the internet.

Since it would be dark soon, the decision to make however, was whether to turn around and go back to 5 to find a motel or to continue hoping we would find something. We set ourselves a deadline since we knew roughly the time sun would set and drove on. Luckily for us we did find a single motel in a small town named and decided to stay there overnight.

When we woke up in the morning, the day was very sunny but it was white with snow everywhere. Our car was covered with thick layer of ice and we used our credit cards to scrape it off.

The drive to Crater lake was a very scenic drive. Along the way there was a beautiful stream that ran beside the road.

Soon the climb up the mountain began. The initial part of the drive was full of lush trees on both side and extremely green, however, about half an hour into the climb and snow started to appear on both sides of the road. However, it didn't seem to bad, since the road was still snow free. Things began to change pretty fast as we climbed and soon we were driving with a wall of snow on both sides that was about 8 feet high!.

Nevertheless since the road was still drivable we continued. Within a few minutes we were driving with a 15 feet wall of snow on both sides. We had never seen anything like this before and it was absolutely magical. The road was now not as snow free as it had been. I slowed down to about 15mph to avoid skidding and patiently kept driving.

The trees were completely covered in snow and looked as if straight out of a fairy story. When we parked our car, the view of the snow-capped mountains was breathtaking.

Aparna had never seen so much snow either and got hysterical with happiness and yes we did have a show fight.

The view of the immaculate blue crater lake surrounded by the white snow was simply beyond anything that words can describe. You have to see it to experience it. The snow was so high here that entire houses were completely covered in snow. We climbed up a snow-covered house and there's Aparna atop a house!

Here is another photo of me standing in front of the snow wall to provide a perpective of how high the snow was. All the neat stacking up of snow was being done by a snow machine.

Aparna also made her personal history by building her first snowman! Looks fair and handsome no?

After spending a few hours we started our return journy. We decided to experiment with a new return path, but it turned out to be bad idea, as there was too much snow along the road and our car skidded though we hit the soft snow wall on the side and no one was hurt. After this, we turned back and drove the same way we had come.

The drive by Klamath lake area was fantastic. There were immaculate white fileds of snow as far as the eye could see. The occasional houses were completely covered in snow.


The view of Klamath lake was fabulous. The Klamath lake itself was frozen in several places.

The views of the 14000 feet high mount Shasta were breathtaking as we drove by it. Obviously both of us needed some posing shots with the mountain in the background.

The trip was fantastic and one of our most memorable trips. We made it to Crater lake despite all odds and seen things that we had never seen before. There is Aparna driving with a smily face - the thing that makes me most happy!