the blues are still blue

"the jewel of the cascades"

on saturday, brad, erin (form the lab), her boyfriend kyle, and i drove down to crater lake. erin and i had been chatting at the beginning of the summer about all the cool things to do in oregon, and she mentioned how much she loved crater lake and that we should go down there. so we organized this trip.

and ... just ... wow.





i don't even want to try to describe how stunning and truly breathtaking it is. crater lake was formed some 7000 years ago when the volcano mazama erupted/collapsed into itself, creating a big 'ole crater than slowly filled with rain water and snow melt. it is the deepest lake in the united states and has the clearest, bluest water i've ever seen.

i took something like 60 photos, since each view of the lake is different and beautiful. here are two of the highlights:



[wizard island - the yellow stuff floating on the top is pine pollen]


[phantom ship through the pines]


the colors are just so vivid. i really want to go back in winter and cross-country ski around the rim - how cool would that be.