Smoky World

There's really not much news to report from the standpoint of the fire. We've been up to the house a few times, mainly to put gasoline in the generator. Yesterday, Mike went up early to refuel the generator. Later in the day a neighbor reported via text that burning embers were falling. Mike had four fuel cans sitting in the field away from the house. It seemed like the best choice. Upon this report of burning embers, we though it made better sense to move them inside our aluminum-roofed pole barn. While we were at the house, we saw no sign of burning embers, so I can't say the report was true. Folks are anxious and worried, and sometimes we can imagine the worst case scenario, whether it's happening or not. We're filing that under "good information to consider, but probably inaccurate." Either way, the fuel cans are safely stowed inside now, and away from the house.

This is the most recent update on the fire. It all sounds good, and the wind has died down. In fact, there seems to be no wind at all. Humidity today is 98%, although we've seen no rain. Obviously the marine layer is moving in, and that can only be a good thing.

I'm happy to see they are meeting with the Department of Forestry to work on strategies to contain the fire. Maybe the end is in sight. For now, we wait.

But, okay, I regained my wits and my wit, so I'm going to tell you about the tiny part of our vacation that actually happened. Last Wednesday, which seems about six months ago at this point, we took a drive around the entirety of Crater Lake. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Rim Drive is closed most of the year because of snow. Even in July, it was closed, and so finally in September, we were able to see the whole thing. 

Since we were in the truck camper, the kitties went along on this excursion. They really just wanted us to get out and close the door so they could have their morning naps. We left Sadie in her cubby above the bed. Smitty was sleeping on one of the chairs.

It was quite a distance...about 50 miles...to the park entrance. It was the closest campground to the park where I could make a reservation and have guaranteed water and electric. We are fully self-contained, but it's still nice to have hookups. I barely caught the sign as we crossed the park boundary.

Along the way, I snapped this image. You can see the layers of smoke obscuring the mountains in the distance. 

We chose to make the loop around the lake in the counter-clockwise direction, which took us to the portion of the road we hadn't yet seen. The road weaves in and out and doesn't actually come close to the lake for several miles. This next image shows our first glimpse of the lake. The thing to notice about Crater lake, aside from it's geological significance, is the color of the water. It's the bluest of blues.

And here, we found a formation we'd never seen before. There are just two islands above the surface of the water. This is the Phantom Ship. When seen from across the lake, it blends into the background. To really get a good look, one must visit from this side. You can see it there through the trees in the image below.

Here, I've zoomed in a little to give you a better look.

The light was bad for photographing signs. In order to get close enough, my own body was casting a shadow where I wanted to focus, but I did get a few little bits of information about this.

Here's an illustration, showing what you might see if you went scuba diving. I don't recommend it, however. The water here is all from snow melt, and it is notoriously cold.

Here's the photograph contained on the sign. There's quite a bit of greenery there.

Driving on, we caught this view from another lookout.

Looking in the other direction, we could see the second visible island...Wizard Island.

Looking off in the distance in the image below, we could see the billowing smoke from the fires. This fire would eventually cause the campground to be evacuated on the day we decided to return home.

Looking to our left, you can see the tippy-top of a mountain, with the mountain itself obscured by smoke. We were very lucky to be able to see the lake at all.

Here's a more all-encompassing view of the lake. If you look just to the right of center, you can see Wizard Island. The Phantom Ship is closer to the left edge of the image.

From this viewpoint, we also saw this information about the Whitebark Pines. I'd never heard of them before now. 

Here are the actual trees. You can see their white bark.

Crater Lake is also home to the Bristlecone Pines, which are some of the oldest living things on the planet. This picture was taken during a visit in February, 2006. Quite a bit colder there at that time of the year.

You can find more information about the Bristlecone pines right here.

So on we went. When we stopped for lunch, I made some sandwiches, and we sat outside eating our lunch. This was our view.

When we'd nearly completed the circle around the lake, we stopped off here to get a better view of Wizard Island. The camera saw more purple in the image below than we could see with our naked eye. To us, it looked blue, blue, blue. I don't know what caused this image to take on the purple cast.

In any case, I took a couple of pano shots here. Remember that you can make the images larger by clicking on them.

The right extreme of my pano was obscured by trees, and so I went to the other side and took another shot.

And here's a little information about what you're seeing in the image above.

It's a little hard to read, and so I'll tell you what it says: "When Mt. Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago, it revealed the inner workings of a volcano. Its destruction left many clues about its formation. The massive gray cliff ahead is Llao Rock, formed when a lava flow filled an explosion crater on the north slope of the mountain. As Mazama collapsed, part of the hardened lava flow cracked and dropped into the caldera, leaving a portion perched on the rim."

This next sign discussed the formation of Wizard Island. It says: "A massive eruption and collapse 7,700 years ago left a deep basin in place of 12,000 foot Mt. Mazama. Over the next three to four hundred years, smaller eruptions sealed the floor, allowing rain and snowmelt to fill the basin and create Crater Lake. Wizard Island is a cinder cone formed during this time, as magma erupted into the air, cooled quickly, and fell as cinders. A small crater rests on its summit. Magma also erupted under water, forming smooth pillow lava. A second similar volcano, Merriam Cone, is hidden from view beneath the lake. Future eruptions may bring further change to this landscape."

It is not unlike the "dome building" process that takes place in a more recent eruption from Mt. St. Helens. Here's a picture of that:

It was very windy where we stood...and you know, engineers. If something can be measured, we will measure it. Wind gusts as high as 30 mph.

As we left the park, I noticed this bird. I'd never seen anything like it before. I found this image on Pinterest. It's a Clark's Nutcracker. You can read more about it right here. It's about the size of a robin. Pretty bird. 

(Image credit: Dennis C. Wheeler)

So back at the campsite, all that sight-seeing completely wore the kitties out. The road was undulating, and so we imagine they didn't get much napping in as we drove around. Kitty treats were dispensed at lunch time, but their nap time was seriously disturbed. Smitty crashed on his catio.

Sadie weirdly chose this uncomfortable spot behind Mike's chair at the dinette. This isn't her usual spot for napping, so I'm not sure why she chose it on this day. Possibly, she was so worn out, she just dropped in her tracks.

Later she enjoyed the view through the screen door. When we're in the truck camper, she really loves sitting here looking out this window onto the world. You can catch the orange glow from the sky reflecting on her fur.

So here we sit...just waiting for the power to be restored. There isn't much to do in the local area, since we've done most of it. With such poor air quality, one doesn't want to be outdoors much. However, we did visit a quilt shop yesterday. It's the best quilt shop in the local area, if you want my opinion. I've written about Boersma's before. I was on the hunt for a backing fabric for the Garden Sunshine quilt. I ended up with four yards of this one. 

It was hard to choose one for this quilt. It has so many colors and designs.

Originally, I'd selected a bright yellow dahlia fabric for its back, but then realized I didn't have enough without piecing it together with something else, and so I went with something yellow when I purchased this fabric yesterday. Although I wasn't sure about it, the woman at the cutting counter exclaimed, "Oh, I LOVE this fabric." And so I figured that was a good enough endorsement for me.

So today, we're still just waiting and watching. We'll head up to the house to refuel the generator, and we finally thought to check on the corn. It might be ready. We're having grilled steaks for dinner. Wouldn't some nice fresh corn be the icing on this sad little cake we're living right now? Fingers crossed. Also, we're camped right next door to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. We've never visited, but we might head over there today. It will be something to do.

Thanks once again for all your supportive comments. We're really doing fine here, and just hoping power will be restored soon. We've paid for our site through Monday, so fingers crossed. We're doing a lot of crossing of our fingers these days.