Camping at Crater Lake National Park had been on my bucket list since moving to the Pacific Northwest. Crater Lake use to be an active volcano named Mount Mazama. Mount Mazama erupted then collapsed under its own weight, leaving a giant crater in its wake. The giant crater slowly filled with water and Crater Lake was born.
Located in south-central Oregon, Crater Lake is a 4-5 hour drive from Portland, depending on traffic. Kieran and I wanted to visit Crater Lake and camp in the area as soon as we learned about it. We discovered our friend Meryl was dying to visit the lake too! The 3 of us packed up our camping gear and drove south to see the incredible lake everyone keeps talking about.
Crater Lake National Park only has 2 campgrounds, Mazama Village Campground and Lost Creek Campground.
- Mazama Campground holds 75 campsites. Mazama’s is the tourist-friendly campground which features amenities like public restrooms, public showers, laundry facilities, a general store, a gift shop, a restaurant, a gas station, and a dump station for RV’s. Mazama accepts reservations for the majority of their campsites, the remaining sites fill on a first-come-first-serve basis.
- Lost Creek is a primitive campsite that holds 16 (tent only) campsites and 2 vault toilets, campers must bring the water they need with them. Lost Creek does not accept reservations, all campsites are first-come-first-serve.
- First-come-first-serve sites at both campgrounds fill quickly so it’s best to arrive before mid-afternoon to snag a campsite.
We left Portland at 6:30 am to hopefully score a camping site at Lost Creek. Unfortunately, the campsites, at both locations, were taken by the time we arrived at 12 pm. We drove to Park Headquarters hoping the information desk could provide additional information about where to camp outside the park. The woman behind the desk provided me with 2 sheets of paper listing campsite after campsite located outside the park but in the vicinity. We traveled west approx 21 miles until we reached Union Creek Campground in Prospect, Oregon.
Union Creek blew my mind. The tiny resort town consisted of campgrounds, a general store, a lodge, Beckie’s Cafe, and an ice cream shop. You could literally throw a stone from one side of the town and hit the other, it was that small. Union Creek Campground had availably so we set up camp at site 12. Site 12 was apparently the best first-come-first-serve campsite the campground had to offer. People continually stopped by to say how lucky we were to get the site! Site 12 was a spacious campsite nestled into the trees alongside a river. The remainder of the day we took turns exploring the grounds and napping in the hammock. For dinner, I cooked steak tacos for everyone to enjoy. After dinner, we sat around the fire, ate S’mores, drank beer, and gazed at the stars.
Steak tacos are my go-to camping food. Tacos are easy, relatively cheap, and the leftover ingredients can be used in breakfast taco’s the next morning. I season skirt steak with salt and pepper and let the meat rest while we build the fire. While the fire burns I slice red pepper, red onion, and halved grape tomatoes for the tacos. You can precut the pepper, onion, and tomato at home to save time. When I want to pack light, sometimes in lieu of onion and tomato I’ll bring salsa, since salsa contains those two ingredients already. Once the fire coals are hot enough I’ll grill the steak. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll throw fresh rosemary herbs onto the coals. The flavored “rosemary smoke” gives the steak a kiss of additional flavor and I love it!
I prefer eating a steak over chicken while camping because you can undercook steak to rare or medium rare and still be OK. Sometimes it’s dark when I’m cooking and it’s hard to tell if chicken’s cooked all the way through. I don’t want to chance to eat undercooked chicken, so I eat steak (or vegetables) when I camp.
Once the steak is cooked I let it rest on a plate. During that time I slice the avocado and warm the tortillas. Once everything is ready I stuff the tortillas with sliced steak, onion, red pepper, tomato, shredded cheese, and cilantro (if I happen to bring it), and hot sauce. Camping tacos are quick, tasty, and will satisfy your hunger after a long day of travel or outdoor fun.
The following day we headed back to Crater Lake National Park to view the lake and hike Mt. Scott, the tallest peak in the park. The night before our trip Kieran and I saw Weird Al Yankovic live. While in line to enter the venue, we started talking to a fun couple in front of us. Once they heard our plans to visit Crater Lake, the husband told me we HAD to hike Mt. Scott, which has the best views in the park. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Mt. Scott was the 3rd most strenuous hike in the park due it’s elevation gain of 1,600 feet. I somehow talked myself, and my traveling companions, into conquering this demanding hike.
Kieran, Meryl, and I stood at the trailhead for Mt. Scott and gasped at its height. The difficultly dawned on us as the stratovolcano loomed before us, taunting us with its massiveness.
Kieran asked, “How long IS this hike?”
I responded, hoping no one would notice “3 hours.”
Meryl gulped, “3 HOURS?”
“Yes! We can do it, we have plenty of water and food, we’ll take it slow!” I cheer-led, hoping to calm her nerves. Shit, I was hoping to calm my nerves.
The 3 of us crossed the threshold of the trailhead as we made our ascent up the volcano’s footpath. Almost immediately the 3 of us felt winded due to the elevation. I mentioned earlier the elevation gain was 1,600, but what I failed to mention is Mt. Scott itself stands 8,934 above sea level! As a result, the higher we hiked, the dizzier and more short of breath we became. To add insult to injury the weather was HOT so we quickly felt fatigued! Shade was our newfound friend on the trail. Kieran, Meryl, and I huffed and puffed, stopping every 30 feet or so, to catch our breath under a tree. During this time I became the water nazi of the group so we stayed hydrated. I practically forced everyone to drink water every 10 minutes.
Poor Meryl was hospitalized for a week due to an unexpected injury a few months before our trip. Her ailment knocked the wind out of her adventurous sails, forcing her to be bedridden for almost a month afterward. Under doctor’s orders, Meryl was forced to take it easy so the Mt. Scott hike was probably the first time she’s been able to physically challenge herself in months. Steady as she goes, Meryl didn’t quit. In fact, towards the end of the hike, she blew past me and reached the trail’s end first!! I was proud we challenged ourselves but worked together to safely navigate the trail.
Upon reaching the summit we were welcomed by panorama views of Crater Lake and the surrounding park. I kept repeating “wow” over and over again, it was all my awestruck brain could muster! We plunked down in the dirt and ate our well-deserved lunch while admiring our view. Speaking of our view, a forest fire broke out on the west side of the lake. If the pictures look hazy, it’s due to the smoke from the fire!
Kieran found a Pokemon!
Once we felt rested we trekked down Mt. Scott back to our car, we were sore but still had the energy to view Crater Lake close up. We drove around the lake stopping at every lookout we could find to snap pictures. The pictures below are not photoshopped to make the water in Crater Lake look bluer, that’s the honest color of the water. In fact, there is a scientific reason why the waters so blue.
According to Crater Lake’s website:
The water is so blue because there is hardly anything else in it – just water. It’s not pure water, but it’s close. We’ve all seen the colors in a rainbow when normal white light passes through a raindrop and breaks into the individual colors of the spectrum. All those colors are in sunlight. The reason different objects appear to be different colors lies in the molecular structure of the chemicals that make up that object. For example, a red shirt appears red because the chemicals in the fabric dye are put together in a way that absorbs all of the colors except red. The red wavelengths then bounce back, hit our retina, and our brain sees “red.”
Water molecules, just plain water with no sediments, algae, pesticides or pollution, will absorb all the colors of the spectrum except the blues. Those wavelengths will bounce back and make the water appear blue. The key is to have relatively pure water and lots of it. There has to be enough molecules to absorb all the other colors. (There are 4.6 trillion gallons of water in the lake, so it works really well.)
Cool huh!?
We retired back at the campsite after a fun-filled and exhausting day of hiking. Upon returning to camp we found a BBQ food cart at the general store 3 minutes down the road from our site. We had good intentions of making food at camp, but after hiking Mt. Scott, we felt too tired. We had a mission, stuff our face with as much food as humanly possible to replenish the calories we burned during our hike. After supper, we drank beer while sitting around the campfire until nightfall.
Meryl was tuckered out so she went to bed shortly after dark. I was DYING to gaze at the stars so Kieran put the fire out, then we made our way to the campground’s parking lot. The parking lot was dark and offered a wide open space with no trees, perfect for looking at stars. We laid on the concrete looking up, as the universe revealed itself to us. The light pollution was minimal so the night sky was dazzling.
Here’s a picture I took…
Hahahaha, I’m joking. I’m new at taking pictures of the night sky so my photo looked like this…
For real, this ^ was the actual picture I took. I think I need practice!
On Sunday morning we packed up our camping gear and headed back to Portland. If you love visiting National Parks, I highly recommend Crater Lake, you won’t see anything else like it, anywhere in the world.
Now that we’re back in town, I plan on bringing you some fun recipes for the upcoming weeks! I’m planning on bringing you a skinny gin and tonic, a poke bowl, and something savory and sweet.
Thanks for stopping by,
Christina
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