This past weekend, we took a trip up north towards Oregon. First on our stop was the Redwood National Park. This is where the famous giant redwoods on the west coast are located. Driving through this northern California coast line, we came across some ginormous trees, Paul Bunyan land, Trees of Mystery, where some really funky trees are grown, and got to go through a Drive-Thru tree, one of only 4 remaining in the world.
The next day, we went to the beautiful Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. This is basically a perfectly pristine lake on an ex-volcanically-active mountain top. The name is actually misleading because the giant "crater" is not caused by a comet, but is actually a caldera, meaning a volcanic mountain burst completely and broke down itself in the processing, thus creating a giant pit. The lake is mostly rain fall contained within the pit and because of its high altitude, the UV rays are so intense here that there is absolutely no life form living in the water. Hence, the perfectly deep blue colour is preserved all the time.
It was an amazing sight, because you can see a complete reflection of the mountain in the water, with no distortion or loss of details. The lake is so calm that there is not a single wave. Because of the high altitude and cold weather, the snow is sustained year-round. On the roads driving up to the lake, the snow build up was higher than our minivan and the Visitor Center was almost snowed-in, and this was in mid-May!
We being 20-something year old kids that we are, just couldn't resist the huge pile up of snow and had a 2-hour long snow fight along the edge of the Lake the whole way through the hike. I think everyone's cloths were pretty soaked by the end. Never had that much fun with snow in May before.
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