On Sunday we left Depoe Bay for home. Day One was about a 6½ hour drive to Klamath Falls, Oregon with a stop at Crater Lake National Park. For the first four plus hours it looked like the visit to Crater Lake would be a waste as it was cloudy, rainy, and very foggy. Then magically as we got off I-5 and drove through rural (very rural!) Oregon, the skies cleared and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.
Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews show just thumbnails of the pictures
We drove along the picturesque North Umpqua River as we headed east. We mostly just enjoyed the view, but we made a few stops including one at the Colliding Rivers viewpoint.
We stopped at a waypoint at Diamond Lake for a picnic which we enjoyed as we fought off the foraging birds and chipmunks who wanted our food. Great views of the lake, Mt. Thielsen (looks like the Matterhorn) and Mt. Bailey.
Diamond Lake & Mt Bailey 
Seamus & Mt Thielsen 
Then we visited Crater Lake National Park. Click the link to learn all about this magnificent lake, the deepest (1,943 feet) in the US and sixth deepest in the world. During the cold spell we had last week, the Crater Lake area got significant snow. It made the lake look more beautiful than ever. We did the East Rim Drive. Pictures tell the story here.
Shadows in Snow 
About an hour after leaving the park we arrived in Klamath Falls were we stayed at the Best Western Plus Olympic. (No Marriotts here.) Pretty nice place. After checking in, we plugged the address of a Thai restaurant that we had researched on TripAdvisor into the GPS and headed out to dinner. 30 seconds and 200 feet later we arrived – the restaurant was next door. Alas, it was closed on Sunday. So we drove up and down the road and chose the restaurant with the most cars – the Mazatlan Grill. It was GOOD Mexican food.
Tomorrow morning we head on to Reno, Nevada.
WOW, the pictures are magnificent, amazing, and for a Sunday where were all the people???? I love that Elaine had her sweater on, hmmm, brisk mountain air, you have to love it. Having a heat wave here, but will cool off the 98s we have been posting by the time you arrive home.
Reno….now you’ll have more snow. They built up downtown a wee bit with the A or Double A maybe MLB Park, but still it’s a mere ghost of what we remember it as being. Anxious to see those pix.
So happy for you that the sun came out at Crater lake-gorgeous photos!
Absolutely stunning pics.
I hope we get some of that snow soon, but not until our foliage has peaked, maybe nearer the end of the month. We’ve had a couple of thirty degree nights, but we’re back in the sixties for a few days now.
Enjoy the rest of your trip. Drive safely.