Hidden
in its sublime setting until the final moment, Crater
Lake bursts into one’s consciousness in full-blown
glory upon first sight. Regardless of what people expect
upon arrival at the rim of the caldera, they react in
the same way. Thousands of well travelled place-baggers
stop in their tracks, cease their conversations about
“more important stuff” and just gape.
After
exhaling whatever breath remains at this 7,000-foot
elevation, gasps of amazement usually blend into textbook
looks of surprise. It’s the dinosaur brain trying
to devour the immense scene in one impossible gulp.
Everyone just stands there, joins with the silence,
and stares into the abyss. It’s BIG! And it’s
BLUE...the most indescribable blue...
At
Crater Lake, creation stares us squarely in the face.
Crater Lake is immense. Arguably the most beautiful
lake in the world, it rests in a textbook example of
a caldera, a large volcanic collapse basin. The lake
is an unexpected gem in the vast Cacade Range volcanic
landscape extending from California’s Lassen Peak
to British Columbia’s Mount Garibaldi. The caldera
rim looms, on average, 1,500 feet above the surface
of the 1,932-foot deep lake. An idea of the lake’s
depth can be had by noting that as much of the caldera
is hidden below the lake surface as projects above it.
Now recovered from total devastation as a result of
the climactic eruptions of Mount Mazama, coniferous
forests and associated animal species soften the approach
to the scarred flanks of the old volcano. The grotesque
wind-sculpted forms of whitebark pines cling to the
caldera rim, defying hundreds of harsh seasons.
—From
“Deep Blue Wilderness” by Ron Warfield
Deep
Blue Wilderness
Ron Warfield
32 pages with 30 color images. 9”x9”
ISBN 0-939365-60-X
$5.95 
- OTHER TITLES THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
 Crater Lake/Sea Lion Caves/Oregon Coast
 Parks of Washington by Nicky Leach
- Mount Rainier by Ron Warfield
- Mount Rainier: A Perilous Paradise by Ron Warfield
- Mount St. Helens: The Rebirth of Mount St. Helens by Barbara Decker
- Mt.
St. Helens: Fire Mountain: The Eruption and Rebirth
- Columbia River Gorge Postcard Book
- Olympic: A Timeless Refuge by Nicky Leach
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