Nearly 7,700 years ago the mountain known as Mt. Mazama erupted. A giant caldera formed. Over the next few centuries snow and rain filled the caldera to make Crater Lake. Historically, in the 1930s the regions was receiving nearly 600 inches of snowfall per year, and in 2000 it was as low as 315 inches (421 in 2022). The depth of the lake however has remained nearly 350 meters despite variation in snow level.
We drove the loop stopping to hike the Watchman Tower trail and look at the various vistas of the crater.

A view from the Watchman Tower down to Wizard Island

Haze from the McKinney, Alex, and Yeti fires reduced visibility. Despite this one of the most amazing features of the lake is its ability to reflect the sky was still on display.

Pumice Point Overlook allowed for a perfect reflection of the sky.

It was a lot of driving this summer (almost 4,000 miles).  Luckily enough Alyssa got us to many of the places without accidents (just emotional scarring).

Alyssa evades law enforcement. We all walked away without harm from this experience.