I think I've seen more "nature" and "natural beauty" this trip than I have experienced in years! 
We past by Lost Creek Reservoir Dam on the way, but we will have to make that a trip for another day.
Kathy, the owner of the KOA where we are working, suggested we visit a bridge of some sort, so we turned into the first national park we came to with "bridge" in the title. (Glenn couldn't remember the exact name she'd told him.) 
We came to one tiny bridge so drove on a ways, then turned around and stopped to take some pictures at this little bridge. The water was actually a yellowish-green color just past the white bubbles. 
We keep saying that to live in Oregon you have to love hiking or rafting, because there are hiking trails and rivers everywhere. In order to get to some sights you have to hike a few miles into the woods or raft down a river. 
We finally arrive at Crater Lake National Park.
Once we are in the Park we actually see snow on the ground.
We stopped at the first chateau (visitor's center.)
This is Glenn with Crater Lake in the background. According to the brochure and web site (http://www.nps.gov/crla) 
Crater Lake is 5 miles wide and ridged by cliffs almost 2,000 feet high. It is located on the crest of the Cascade Mountain range in Southern Oregon.
It is hard to tell from these pictures because the sky was a bit hazy from the smoke of the California wildfires. but we were not able to experience the real draw of Crater Lake which is the sapphire blue water. 
It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, created when the 12,000 foot high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago following a large eruption. Crater Lake is 1,943 feet deep which makes it the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States. 
Glenn was more impressed with the amount of snow on the ground yet it was at least 70 degrees up on the rim. 
In fact we read that the snow, which averages 533 inches per year, supplies the lake with water. There are no inlets or outlets to the lake. This is some we saw as we drove partially around the rim.
And this is Wizard Island, which was formed by volcanic eruptions years later as were other volcanic features under the lake. 
At one spot along the rim drive where we stopped for more pictures of the lake, we saw two little chipmunks scampering around the stone wall. They seemed to dance around begging all of us standing there for food.
We traveled on around and went from this snowy area right to...
...this desert! Can you believe it? This desert lasted maybe a good city block or less than 1/2 a mile, I would guess.
We exit the Crater Lake National Park and drive north to Diamond Lake.
Then back home.
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