‘Round the Rim of Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Crater Lake from the Rim Village

I often write about trails that can be hiked in various parks.  However, this week I’d like to take you on a driving tour of Crater Lake—you don’t have to even get out of your vehicle!  You’ll enjoy it more if you get out and walk around the viewpoints, but if you’re looking for a low-energy way to see some of the best of Crater Lake National Park, this is one of the best ways to do it.  The Rim Drive goes all the way around the rim of the lake (I guess that makes sense from the name!), beginning and ending at park headquarters.  The drive is only open in the summer (July through October, most years), so exactly how much of the drive you’ll be able to do will depend on the amount of snow.  The east side has been closed every time we’ve been there until the last time we visited, when we drove it for the first time (the west side was open every time we’ve visited, even in late June).  It was early morning, and I highly recommend that you do the drive at this hour.  The wind may not have disturbed the surface of the lake yet, and you will certainly miss a lot of the crowds that will be on the drive later in the day.

 



 

As I said above, the Rim Drive begins at Park Headquarters.  If you’re coming from the south or west, follow the signs to Mazama Village and then to the visitor center.  If you’re coming from the north, you’ll likely be starting the drive at North Junction.  You can still do the drive, but you’ll end up back at North Junction in the end, and be passing Park Headquarters along the way.  The area between North Junction and Park Headquarters on the west side of the lake is called the West Rim Drive, and is often open earlier in the season than the East Rim Drive, on the other side of the lake (I recall visiting in late June and seeing mountains of snow still blocking the East Rim Drive!).  I am going to start the tour at the Park Headquarters and take you counter-clockwise around the lake.  If you’re driving this in the early morning, this is the best way to go, as views from the west side would have the sun directly in your eyes across the lake.  However, if it’s very early morning, go clockwise about 3 miles up to the Rim Village to enjoy the views of the lake before heading back to Park Headquarters and around counter-clockwise.  When we visited one day in late September, the lake was completely still, and even the park rangers were looking over the edge to enjoy its calm serenity!

 

Phantom Ship, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

The Phantom Ship from Phantom Ship Overlook

Start out from the Park Headquarters.  Turn right out of the parking lot and then quickly make a left turn onto the East Rim Drive.  (This junction is well marked; if you’re coming up from Mazama Village, simply take a right on the East Side Drive).  The first major attraction you come to will be on your left: Vidae Falls.  Here a little stream tumbles 100 ft. down a series of ledges.  This is about 3 miles from park headquarters.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall ever visiting the falls, so you’ll have to comment and tell me how impressive/unimpressive it is.  Keep driving and you’ll pass Sun Notch.  This is a short, steep trail up to the very Rim of Crater Lake (1 mile loop).  It’s not the best view on the drive, but it’s nice enough that I recommend you walk to it.  After another 5.5 miles you will come to a nice little overlook that is surrounded by trees.  This is the Phantom Ship Overlook, and if you want to see this rock formation sticking up out of the water, I highly recommend you stop here.  As I said, there are plenty of trees between you and the lake, so the view of the lake itself isn’t great, but you can see the ship up close and personal.  We really enjoyed stopping here and snapping a few pictures of the ship, still in shadow because of the early hour, reflected gracefully in the clear water.  Later in the day, this reflection disappears in the sunlight.

 

Close up of the Phantom Ship

Keep driving around the East Side Drive for another 3.5 miles to the Cloudcap Overlook.  The overlook is located up a short road on the left side of the road—the road is well-marked.  This is one of the best views of the lake on the whole drive, so I highly recommend you stop here.  Simply walk over to the sidewalk and let your mouth gape at the beauty of the lake laid out below you.  From here you can see the Phantom Ship as well as Wizard Island.  This is the highest point on the Rim Drive, and it’s a wonderful place to enjoy Crater Lake’s deep blue color and the tree-studded rim that surrounds it.  Again this would be a great viewpoint to visit early in the morning.  We spent quite a bit of time here, and by the time we left, the wind had picked up, diminishing most of the reflections.  The view from here is probably best in the morning, because the sun is behind you; later in the day it would be right across the lake, so picture taking wouldn’t be as good.

 

Cloudcap Overlook, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Part of the view from Cloudcap Overlook

After you’re done with Cloudcap Overlook, continue driving around the loop (make sure to turn left out of the road up to the overlook).  The next real stop on the drive (not including the parking area for the Mount Scott trail) is 7.2 miles farther, counter-clockwise around the East Rim Drive.  This is the Cleetwood Cove Trail, where hikers can start down a trail to the lakeshore itself (tours also go from Cleatwood Cove, at the bottom of the trail, to Wizard Island).  I did the hike several years ago, and it is a fairly steep 2.2-mile RT treck down many, many switchbacks to the bottom.  Some people like to go swimming there, but we found the water almost too cold to stick our feet in—brrrrr!  I don’t recall the views from the parking area to be great (there are trees in the way), although you can see the lake from here.  Check out the national park website (http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm) for more information about the boat tours to Wizard Island.

 

Wizard Island, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Close up of Wizard Island

From Cleetwood Cove to North Junction is 4.6 miles.  North Junction is the north entrance to the park, so if you’re coming in this way, you would turn left to go up to Cloudcap Overlook or right to go to Watchman Overlook.  If you’re coming from Cloudcap Overlook, just keep going around the loop for another 2 miles to the trailhead for Watchman Overlook.  You are now on the West Rim Drive, which in my experience opens earlier in the season than the East Rim Drive, although this is not always the case.  The Watchman Overlook is another must-stop attraction, as you can see almost the whole lake and get a close-up view of Wizard Island.  A trail up Watchman Peak also starts near here; views from the top are outstanding.  If the trail isn’t snowed in (it often doesn’t open until August) and you’re up to a 1.6 mile RT hike, it’s definitely worth it.

 

Phantom Ship from Cloudcap Overlook, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

The Phantom Ship from Cloudcap Overloook

Keep driving, and the next major attraction is Discovery Point, 2.7 miles beyond Watchman Overlook.  This is really just a parking area; a 1.1 mile (one way) trail leads from here to Rim Village.  The trail itself offers some really nice views of the lake, and a shuttle vehicle could be left at each end of the trail.  If you’re just doing the overlooks, keep driving up to Rim Village, 1.1 miles further (the trail and the road parallel each other).  Here you can get some more really nice views of the lake, although the parking lot here fills up quickly—we were amazed early one morning in late September just how fast it filled up while we were strolling along the paved path at the edge of the rim.  This area is good for early-morning viewing, although because it’s on the south side of the lake, afternoon would be a nice time to visit, as well.  From here, it’s 3 miles back to the Park Headquarters where you started.  In all, the Rim Drive is 33 miles long—give yourself at least 3 hours to see all the pullouts; more if you want to do some of the hiking along the way.

 

Chipmunk at Cloudcap Overlook, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

A Pesky Chipmunk poses for a picture at Cloudcap

The pullouts along the Rim Drive are wheelchair accessible.  The Rim Village is especially wheel-chair friendly, as you can go along a fairly flat sidewalk for quite a ways along the rim (use caution as there are a few steeper grades in this area).  For more information about accessible facilities, please see http://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/accessibility-2.pdf

 

Round Trip Trail Length: Varies; can be no hiking involved

Facilities: Restrooms at various pullouts and overlooks, many interpretive signs, access ramps at pullouts

Fees: $10, good 7 days.  Interagency, Golden Age (Senior), Golden Access (Access), and Crater Lake Annual passes also accepted.

 

Road ★

Signs ★

Scenery ★

Would I go 100 miles out of my way for this? ★

Overall Rating: ★

 

This Week’s Featured Product!

Check out so many more hikes in southern Oregon (including Crater Lake National Park) in this guide! From short strolls to overnight trips, the book covers nearly 100 hikes in the area.

 

 




36 thoughts on “‘Round the Rim of Crater Lake

  1. HAA

    I found you’re blog via Google and I have to say. A Enormous Thank you so much, I believed that your post was incredibly enlightening I will come back to see what more great information I can recieve here.

  2. Vimax France

    Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!

  3. Rolando

    Hi I located your website by mistake when i was searching Live search for this matter, I must tell you your webpage is quite valuable I also enjoy the design, its great!

  4. C. V.

    Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossips and web and this is really irritating. A good site with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for keeping this web site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.

  5. V.X.

    Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such fantastic info being shared freely out there.

  6. Hi C.V.,
    I don’t currently do newsletters, but I may do them in the future. Glad you like the site.
    Anne

  7. Liskie

    I have not checked in here for some time since I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are great quality so I guess I will add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

  8. Justis

    Hi to all, it’s truly a good for me to visit this web site, it includes important Information.

  9. Aurelio Cinquanti

    Feedback from a full time site developer. Your website surfaces all over the net, you must be doing all the proper things. Developing such a popular internet site is not easy. Figured I would connect in and link to you.

  10. Jamee Albertsen

    Hi Guys,

    Excellent blog post, I have learned a few things from this 🙂

    Thanks for the share.

    I will check back soon for updates soon to see if it can help me out.

    Thanks

    xx

  11. Luetta Parness

    Spot on with this write-up, I actually think this website needs way more consideration. I’ll in all probability be once more to read way more, thanks for that info.

  12. Bonita Moritz

    Loving the info on this site, you’ve done excellent job on the content material .

  13. Touran

    Hey There. I discovered your blog while using msn. This is a really neatly written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn extra of your helpful information. Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly return.

  14. Hildegarde Ermatinger

    Thank you for another informative blog. Where else could I get that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I have a project that I am just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.

  15. Hi Kate,
    I don’t currently have a fan page on Facebook, but I hope to set one up soon. I will post this on the blog when I get one. Thanks!
    Anne

  16. Bennett Kapelke

    Thank you for sharing excellent information. Your website is very cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for extra articles.

  17. U. Helska

    Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

  18. Sean Seigworth

    I went over this website and I conceive you have a lot of excellent info, saved to bookmarks (:.

  19. Termini Rademacher

    It is really a great and useful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.

  20. Leon Labeau

    Hello There. I found your blog using msn. That is a very well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read extra of your helpful information. Thank you for the post. I’ll certainly return.

  21. Wally b. Hubston

    I really enjoyed your blog! I put it in my favorites so I can come back again. I found it on Bing.

  22. Mary dwight

    ove the site will be bookmarking for future reference. Keep up the good work pal.

  23. William Hill

    Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. realy thank you for starting this up. this website is something that is needed on the web, someone with a little originality. useful job for bringing something new to the internet

  24. Pingback: S.W.

  25. Hi S.W.,

    I have a friend who developed the website for me using a WordPress template. Hope that helps. I’m glad you like the design.

    Anne

  26. Pingback: The Glory of the Lord Comes from the Wilderness - Anne's Travels

  27. Pingback: Joy of God - Anne's Travels

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Get Hiking Guides & Other Outdoor Fun!

Subscribe to View Junkie Adventure Report and get exclusive outdoor and hiking-related content.

We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use