Just to get the basics out of the way. Crater Lake National Park is 249 Square Miles in size and was made a park on May 22, 1902 by the great President Theodore Roosevelt. The lake itself is 20 Square Miles. It is one thousand nine hundred thirty-two feet deep and is the deepest lake in the United States. The average snowfall, which is the only source for lake water, is 524" a year. This past year,'06, the snowfall was 571.8"-that's over 47 feet of snow-and enough of it is still on the ground so that some of the campgrounds and the Rim Drive are still closed (07/06). The height of the rim is 8,106 ft, almost 2,000 ft above the lake.

"This is the bluest lake we've ever seen", Those were the words the first whites who saw the lake used to describe it in June of 1853. However there is more to see than just the lake. The forests that surround the ancient volcano and fill the 180,000 acres of the park are old growth. They have never been logged and were probably ancient when Europeans first started visiting the area. The mountain or what is left of it was named for the first mountain climbing club here in Oregon, Mazama.

Now we can get to the geologic wonder of the mountain and the lake. It is calculated that before the volcano exploded that it was at least 12,000 feet high. That was over six thousand years ago and is told of in Native American legends, from both sides of the Cascades. But, that was not the end of the story. How long the volcano was active afterwards is anyone's guess. Only by looking underneath the lake surface can we see what has happened since. There are two cones on the lake bottom and two more large lava flows. Then there is Wizard Island, which rises over 800 feet above the lake surface.