Scattered Thoughts . . .

B y chance, I happened to capture a few photos (unknowingly) of some features off in the distance and outside of Crater Lake while we were at Crater Lake that are worth writing about very briefly here in my blog.  These features are still within the National Park but they are not really part of the rim of Mount Mazuma which is now Crater Lake.   The first notable feature is Mount Thielsen at an elevation of 9,184 feet.  I did notice this mountain almost immediately when I was first gazing across the lake.  It is very prominent and distinctive.  In fact, it instantly reminded me of the Paramount logo. This particular mountain is an extinct volcano with its last eruption being 250,000 years ago.  Volcano activity in the Cascade Mountains dates back to 55 million years ago so, relatively speaking, 250,000 years ago is on the more recent side.   This horn-like peak has been carved by glaciers which have eroded the mountain to produce the pointy, ...

T his is a relatively short blog entry with just a few photos showing our attempt at making it to the summit of Garfield Peak at an elevation of just over 8000 feet.  Just 300 vertical feet short of the summit, we made it to 7700 feet where my health forced us to make our way back down this rather treacherous peak.   I should also point out that this was during our first few hours at the higher elevation of Crater Lake and an unexpected road closure prompted us to change plans.  We were simply "looking around" and exploring the area right around the lodge and found ourselves on the beginning of the trail to this summit so we figured, "Why not?"  Our thought was that if this proved to be too much for my health (or for any of us), we could always just turn around and head back to the lodge.  So, we pressed onward toward the summit. The photo below shows the rim trail near the lodge.  Near the lodge, the rim trail is asphalt to minimize trampled ruts....