Day 5: Crater Lake to Bend - June 19

After breaking down camp, we set off to see more of Crater Lake.  We started along the east rim drive and took a detour to see some very cool geological formations, The Pinnacles – ancient steam vents that hardened around the steam such that they remain standing untouched while the earth around them has eroded.

Phantom Ship Island

Pumice Castle

From there we continued along the drive stopping at different vantage points showcasing various lake features. 

Holly and Jason from San Juan Islands

Then we came to the only path that leads to the water’s edge – the Cleetwood Cove trail – and headed down.  When we got to the bottom, we found a group of people jumping off big rocks into the cold water of the lake (surface temp average 55 degrees, but still very early in the season).  None of us had bathing suits with us but Rachel had a couple of layers on.  She expressed interest in jumping and got a lot of support from people who had just jumped, especially Holly and Jason, who talked her through it and agreed to jump in after her if needed.  Without much hesitation at all, Rachel jumped into the water.  I stayed near the top with her to offer support and fret about her safety while Julia went to the bottom to take pictures. 

Then, shocking all of us - herself included - Julia decided she too wanted to jump.  Julia has a big fear of heights and typically freaks out if any of us get too close to the edge of a cliff (ask her about some of my stellar-parenting fake falls) – so the thought of her jumping off of a cliff willingly came as a huge surprise.  She didn’t have a change of clothes, so she put on Rachel’s wet jumping clothes and stood on the edge of the rock for a few minutes while Jason patiently talked her through it.   I was so proud of her for confronting her fear face on…and so happy that she too can say that she swam in Crater Lake.   

Dieter and Simela from NYC

We hung out at the cliffs for quite a while encouraging others to take the plunge and serving as photographers when they decided to do it.   We chatted with one very nice couple, Simela and Dieter, for quite a while and enjoyed their company and hearing their story.  Since he has a programming job he can do from anywhere they’ve hit the road for a one-year journey, driving cross-country from New York to Seattle and heading down to San Francisco to live on a houseboat for the next few weeks.  If only Jim could figure out working remotely – I could get behind that idea!

After getting back to the car (the hike back up earned it its rating of “strenuous”), we set out for our next destination: Bend.    We get to settle in for three nights in the same location and luckily the airbnb (“The Sports Chalet”) I found is fantastic and I highly recommend.  Huge, close to downtown, comfortable, and private.   We set out to check out the downtown area and discovered this weekend is the “Bite of Bend” – a food/beer/music festival that shuts down the streets to traffic.  So fun!  Tonight was just a preview so we are planning to go back over the weekend.  We wandered around downtown and ended up at a great restaurant for dinner – Drake – a Bend tradition since April. 

We ended the evening picking Jim up at the airport!  He is with us for the weekend and I’m sure very excited to be joining in on the adventure as we are to have him here… but the poor guy was greeted by three very tired people.   I’m sure we’ll gather more energy for whatever tomorrow has in store…