Crater Lake Ladies!

Happy Friday everyone!  A few fun things have happened over the last few days.  On Wednesday, I was scheduled to give my first ranger talk at the Sinnott Memorial Overlook.  This shift means I give three 20-minute talks throughout the day while working in the visitor center when I’m not giving a talk.  I’ve been thinking about, researching, and writing this talk for a while now, so it was exciting to finally share it.  The title of the talk is “Crater Lake Ladies,” in which I talk about five different women who have left their mark on Crater Lake National Park.  At first, I think people were skeptical that I’d find enough material, but I was able to find so much interesting information, and I think the talk was a success! 

 On Wednesday after work, my roommate Karlie and I decided to do the ranger-led sunset hike up to Watchman Peak, a fire lookout that we have here in the park.  So at 7:30, we met Ranger Dave, a retired teacher who is so knowledgable and has a super funny dry sense of humor, and we made our way up the peak with a group of park visitors. It’s only 3/4 of a mile up to the lookout, and Dave stopped along the way to share information about history of the park roads, women who worked in the fire lookouts in the 40’s, fire ecology, and trees.  When we got to the top, the sunset was beautiful, but it was also a bit breezy and chilly.  Regardless, the view was totally worth it! 

    
   
On Thursday, I was on a long boat shift which means I did two full boat tours, plus a three-hour stay on Wizard Island.  While on the island, there are two trails: one goes to the summit of the peak, and one goes out to an area called Fumerole Bay.  I had never done the hike to Fumerole, so I decided to do it this time.   

   
There was another gentleman on the tour named Marshall who was also going that direction, so he and I hiked together and I enjoyed hearing about his travel adventures!  Marshall was in his 50s though I’d never guess it, and he’d been married for 30 years.  His wife isn’t really the outdoors-y type, so he travels to many national parks on his own.  He told me about hiking Half Dome in Yosemite, seeing wolves in Yellowstone, and volcanoes in Lassen.  Marshall also works in the NICU with premature babies at a hospital in California, and he was so passionate about these little infants who fight to survive and about the miracles he sees everyday.  It was a lot of fun talking with Marshall and we had a great hike.  He even braved the cold waters and jumped in the lake!  Being here in Crater Lake has really given me the opportunity to meet some pretty amazing people from all over the world, and I’ve been so fortunate to do this for the summer.

So after a long day of boats, it was time for the “White Bark Pint” party here in Sleepy Hollow where the seasonal staff lives.   

 White Bark Pint is a pun of the White Bark Pine which is a fragile tree here at Crater Lake.  So to celebrate this tree, and kick off the summer season, one of the other interps, Shawn, hosted this fun event.  People from many different divisions came to hang out, and it was a lot of fun chatting, dancing to 90s music, and seeing co-workers in a different setting.  I have a trolley shift at 8:45 this morning, so I had to leave by midnight, but it was a great time!

So now I’m off to do my trolley shift.  Tomorrow I’m on the boats again, and on Sunday, I’m in the visitor center for a half-day in the afternoon.  My friend Allison is coming to visit on Sunday, and I absolutely cannot wait to see her! 

Until next time, have a great weekend!

Rough Rider Falls Hike

After Saturday’s long day of the Wizard Island boat tour shift, it was nice to have Sunday as a prep day.  I spent the morning in the library down the hall from our interp work room, where I continued to research the women of Crater Lake, which will be the subject of my 20-minute ranger talk at the Sinnott Memorial.  If you recall from a previous post, I had made some personal connections to one woman named Frances Fuller Victor, whose name used to grace what is now the Sinnott Overlook.  

In Sunday’s research, I discovered that after renaming her overlook (Victor Rock) to the Sinnott, the 1945 superintendent of the park decided to give her another overlook called Victor View.  After planning my trolley tour, I knew there was no overlook on the map named Victor View, so I did some investigating.  One article said that Victor View was located at the overlook above Sentinel Point, which can only be found by locating an easily-overlooked trail over a rock wall and through a stand of mountain hemlocks.  

This was turning into quite the mystery, so after eating lunch at home, I hopped in my car and set out to find Victor View.  It took me stopping at a few different overlooks on East Rim Drive, but I finally found the trail behind the rock wall.  And boy was I excited to follow that path!  Sure enough, it was hidden from sight of the overlook, but led down to Sentinel Point which I had seen from the boat, but never from the road. I was so happy that I had found Frances’s overlook, and it gave me more motivation to keep investigating, which I continued to do that afternoon. 

 After my day of prepping, Heidi, Karlie, and I headed over to a cookout where a couple who works here at the park was celebrating their wedding which had occurred this past weekend.  We got a bite to eat and chatted with lots of people from other divisions.  Then we headed over to play some volley-friz with the other interps, which was another great time.  

Today was my day off, so after I woke up, I set to work finding a new trail to go hike.  Once I found one, I ventured out once again to the Rogue National Forest for another hike along the Rogue River.  I had to drive a little off the main highway to a forest road, but shortly thereafter I located the trailhead.  It was a beautiful day, so I decided to do a longer hike that would be about 8 miles round trip.  As I set off, I hiked through stands of Shasta Red Firs and Sugar Pines, the Sugar Pines being known for their really big pinecones. 

 The highlight of the hike would be two big waterfalls.  The first came after about 2 miles of hiking.  This one was simply called “Un-named Waterfall” in my guidebook.  But after seeing it, I feel it is definitely worthy of a name! 

   
The second waterfall was called Rough Rider Falls, and it appeared around mile 4 of my hike.  I can certainly understand why it was named so, as I certainly would be fearful of taking a ride down this one!   Rough Rider was particularly beautiful because of the bright green moss that grew on the rocks and logs in its path.  The air was significantly cooler here too, which was a nice break from the 90 degree afternoon. 

    
   
The hike back was peaceful and I got to get another glimpse of the Un-named Falls on the way.  I also realized that despite the incredible falls on this trail, I was the only person on the entire trail.  Such solitude is truly special.

When I got back to my car, I located another short trail in my guidebook that led to a waterfall just about 3 miles up the road, so I headed there next.  I had to drive another 4 miles down a forest service road, but the trail to National Creek Falls was well-marked with signs.  It was just a half mile down a trail, but it led to an absolutely stunning waterfall that was so big, I had trouble getting all of it in the shot of my camera.  Plus, the mist from the falls was so great that I had to be quick so that it didn’t totally soak my I Phone while I was taking the photos. 

   
That same mist also created a pretty rainbow in front of the falls. 

 After admiring the view for a while, I hiked back up to my car, wrapping up a 9-mile day of hiking.  Phew!  It was nice to get home, shower, eat some dinner, and chill for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to Lava Beds National Monument with Heidi which should prove to be another great adventure.  Until then, good night from Crater Lake!