stepping onto Discovery Point

The forest growth starts to clear, opening to a stunning first view of Crater Lake. I’ve been smitten before, but not quite like this.

My first hike will be the appropriately named Discovery Point trail. Starting at the Crater Lake Lodge, this hike acclimates one to your surroundings while learning the history of the lake and the people that call this place home.

Imagine, if you can, a volcano eruption so large and powerful that it appears as though a mountain was dissected, the top crushed into a million pieces and strewn for hundred of miles. The resulting crater walls are smooth vertical drops leading down to pristine waters.

A small island is left in the middle of the lake…yet not an island. A smaller volcano that was trapped under the more formidable parent, now free and exposed.

A volcano within a volcano. No wonder the Klamath Indians felt such a spiritual connection to Mother earth in this place.

Volcanic sand, fine as any found at the beach, covers the land as you walk along the crater’s rim trail. The harsh environment leaves little wildlife to be seen, only the occasional varmint and the lone hawk watching from the treeline.

I listen to the sounds of silence upon a rock that came from the bowels of the earth once upon a millenia.

The air tastes sweeter, the clouds more majestic in their puffy brilliance. Trees rise and dot the landscape as protective watchers over the land.

The setting sun vividly colors the area in a pink and burnt orange glow.

I find a low rock wall, and let time slowly melt into the dark night as I sit and watch the movie nature provides unfold before me.