Oregon: Crater Lake Part 2

As I drove up to Crater Lake, I really had no idea what I was about to see.  The landscape looked like this:

There was some evidence of volcanic activity near by.  Mt. McLaughlin was in the distance, looking perfectly conical and volcano-shaped.  Then I saw this river, flowing through a crack in the lava rock around the base of Crater Lake: 

And finally, as I got closer, what I thought was just dirt turned out to be pumice, brown rock that is unexpectedly light and full of air, because it was lava that still had bubbles in it when it cooled and solidified while being blown out of the volcano.  Then I crested the rim of the mountain, and suddenly I see this:

It's amazing!  The most blue, most clear lake I've ever seen! And it looks exactly like what it is, a giant lake that has filled the crater of an exploded volcano.  The lake is five miles across, roughly circular, very deep, and has no inlets or outlets.  Its drainage area is tiny, just the cliffs that surround it.  It's also one of the deepest lakes in the world, the second deepest in North America.  I think it's amazing that its stable depth, where water in (from rain and underground springs) and water out (evaporation, draining through the ground) are equal, is so close to the rim, but not over it.  It's like a soup bowl that is just full enough, but difficult to carry without spilling. 

I drove around the lake, stopping at all the overlooks. I have a million pictures.  Here's my lunch stop.  Yum yum, reheated pasta! (And yes, that's a Jetboil.)

And here is a view across the lake as the sun started to go down:

 

And another one:

 I hiked up one of the nearby peaks for a better look.  Before the mountain exploded, this peak was a side-vent in the volcano.  The main volcano blew its top, leaving the side-vent higher than the new crater's rim.

The following morning (after my cougar-free night of camping) I watched the sun come up over the crater's rim: 

One other cool geology bit is the mini-volcano in the center of the lake:

After the volcano exploded and formed a huge crater, later eruptions started to form a new mountain inside the old one.  I think the coolest part about this mini-volcano (which isn't really all that mini, since it starts on the lake bottom) is that it has its own mini-crater top!

Finally, I left Crater Lake behind, and headed towards Eugene, Oregon.