Deep Blue and Ice Cold

It was a beautiful blue-sky, 53-degree day today in Klamath Falls. We drove one hour and fifteen minutes on spotty snow-covered roads through farmland up to Crater Lake National Park to cross country ski.

Crater Lake is 1,943 feet deep, the deepest lake in the United States, and the ninth deepest in the world. The lake was created when Mount Mazama, an ancient volcano, erupted 7,700 years ago—the largest to occur in North America in half a million years. The lake remains at a fairly constant level because it is supplied with an average of 43 feet of snow each winter. However, this is an unusual year because they have only received 16% of normal snowfall. Only about 18 inches was on the ground. Today the road to the visitor center was open from the south, but the other park roads had closed around mid-October.

As we were leaving the car to ski we saw a young couple get out of their car with California license plates. We said hello and started a conversation. It was their first trip to the park.

Today’s gift was to offer advice and give them a full download on touring the park. At first they seemed disappointed when I told them that they couldn’t drive around the rim above the lake during the winter. We advised them to start their tour in the visitor’s center on the observation deck and then take in the spectacular views by walking around the edge of the lake on the well-packed snow. We also warned them about the black ice and to be careful when they walked to their car.

They were so appreciative of our advice they offered us a beer. We politely declined, but he said, “No, really we buried two beers in the snow. You are welcome to have them.” Then he showed me exactly where he carefully marked their location with two handprints in the snow.

We didn’t see the couple again, but I can imagine that after their tour and peering over the steep canyon walls into the deep blue lake—they were very happy that their ice cold bottles of beer were still safely stashed in the snow.

In Giving,

Robin