Drawing Visitors To Crater Lake National Park

Above, a view of Wizard Island. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Two years ago, during my Great American Eclipse trip to Idaho, I took a long way home to California by stopping for a couple of nights at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

The only thing that marred the visit were wildfires in the area that left a smoky haze inside the crater. Last year, the same thing happened again.

However, that didn't stop visitors from coming.

The News-Review has an article on the allure of Crater Lake National Park.

They begin with:

CRATER LAKE — Oregon’s only national park may not be located completely in Douglas County — in fact most of the park is in Klamath County — but many tourists head east from Roseburg on the North Umpqua Highway to access Crater Lake National Park from the north entrance. 

Hundreds of thousands of visitors from all parts of the world come to the park each year, although attendance last year was held down because of wildfire and smoke. And last winter, heavy snow closed the park entrances to winter visitors for several days. But park officials say they get about 750,000 visitors each year. 

There are a lot of reasons people are attracted to the park. 

“It’s a beautiful place, the deepest lake in the United States and that color of blue is unlike anything you see anywhere,” said Public information officer Marsha McCabe. “It’s one of those things that takes people’s breath away the first time they see it.” 

But that’s not the only draw. Many come to use the hiking trails, see old growth forests, or boat tours on the lake in the summertime. McCabe said the guided ranger tours have been popular and they also offer educational talks with the rangers and junior ranger programs for the kids in Rim Village.

To read more, go here.