A Day with Mount Mazama (Crater Lake)

[baz7175]

I spend just over 18 hours at Crater Lake on Saturday, plus a 5hr drive to and from, in the hope of capturing the lake at sunrise, daytime and sunset.

So far I've pulled out a few of the sunrise images, all pretty much SOOC other than straightening and resizing. More to come from the day of re-exploring the lake and it's surroundings as well as the sunset over the lake and Cascade Mountains once I sort through them all.

On with the pics:-

It's pretty dark when a 25 second exposure only supplies the following...


Crater Lake Trip - 1 - Darkness by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Within half an hour of arriving (I parked up around 4.35am) the light began to show up over the West side of the crater...


Crater Lake Trip - 2 - Hint Of Light by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

And then little by little the light grew as sunset approached...


Crater Lake Trip - 3 - Begin Of The Sunrise Show by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 4 - A Little More Light by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 5 - Wizard Island Awakes by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 6 - The Sun Prepares Itself by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Looking back to the South, Wizard Island was in prime position to watch the sky burn before it...


Crater Lake Trip - 7 - Glow Over Wizard Island by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

With the sun getting closer and closer to the horizon the colours on show were stunning as the light began to slowly spill out onto the surface of the water too...


Crater Lake Trip - 8 - With Only Minutes To Go by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Finally, the sun broke the horizon and started colouring everything in its path...


Crater Lake Trip - 9 - Daybreak by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

As the sun rose, for the first time I saw the amazing star-effect that the Sigma 10-20mm lens can provide at f22...


Crater Lake Trip - 10 - The Rise by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

I normally hate when I get weird flare and artifacts in shots with the sun etc in them, but I love the rainbow flare that looks like it's something sitting right on the surface of the water...


Crater Lake Trip - 11 - Colour On The Lake by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

And with the sun fully over the horizon it was time to start planning where to visit first for the long day ahead...


Crater Lake Trip - 12 - Morning Rays by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Many, many more pics to come later...

[baz7175]

Time for phase 2 of the pics from yesterday...

After seeing how cool a star pattern the Sigma 10-20mm lens would provide at f22, it seemed only fair to shoot a few pics of the sun during the day too...


Crater Lake Trip - 13 - Morning Sun Over The Crater Rim by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Crater Lake is most famous for it's amazing blue water, as all of it's water comes from rain and melting snow and has no river in or out that could pollute it.

No matter where you are in Crater Lake National Park, if you can see the lake the blue water will call out to you.


Crater Lake Trip - 14 - Colour Teaser by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

If it's your first time standing at the edge of the rim at Crater Lake you will be forgiven for standing still, completely motionless, awestruck by the awesome beauty that lies before you.


Crater Lake Trip - 15 - From The Rim by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Last year when I first visited Crater Lake while in Oregon with work I didn't even know that the Garfield Peak trail existed, so when I visited it yesterday I made a point to hike the trail which is 1.5 miles long and climbs up 970 feet from it's starting point, ending with you standing 8000 feet above sea level.


Crater Lake Trip - 16 - Garfield Peak Trail 1 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Had I known how amazing the views were from the Garfield Peak trail I would definitely have took the time to hike up the trail last year.

At least I know now for next time...


Crater Lake Trip - 17 - Garfield Peak Trail 2 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 18 - Garfield Peak Trail 3 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

More to come from the Garfield Peak trail once I finish uploading the images from my 60D and move over to camera 2's image, my trusty Sony R1 workhorse...

On the west side of the Crater Lake caldera is Discovery Point, which is pretty much the final main stop before you reach the Rim Village on the South West of the crater.

From Discovery Point you can get a decent shot of Wizard Island, which you can see off to the left side of this image.

I wanted to get a nice shot of as much of the lake as possible for this pic.


Crater Lake Trip - 19 - Discovery Point by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

As I explained in the previous photo, Discovery Point also gives a great vantage point from which to shoot Wizard Island.


Crater Lake Trip - 20 - Wizard Island 1 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

A little earier in the day I shot some images of Wizard Island from the side of Hillman Peak near the Watchman Viewpoint.

As you can see, in the early morning light the colour of the water isn't as radiant as it is later in the day.


Crater Lake Trip - 21 - Wizard Island 2 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 22 - Wizard Island Crater by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Last year when I visited Crater Lake it was a few weeks later into the summer months, and as such there was hardly any snow other than a few lumps left on top of Cloudcap viewpoint, this time there was still a good sprinkling throughout the park and severe amounts in some of the less exposed areas.


Crater Lake Trip - 23 - Snow Around The Crater Wall by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

More still to come...

[JulianHJ]

I love the pre-dawn pics, absolutely fantastic.

[baz7175]

Time for part 3:-

With little to no wind around until early afternoon, it gave the perfect opportunity to shoot some of the reflections of the crater walls in the surface of the lakes water.


Crater Lake Trip - 24 - Reflections 1 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 25 - Reflections 2 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 26 - Reflections 3 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 27 - Reflections 4 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 28 - Reflections 5 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Until Friday a good chunk of the East rim road was still closed due to snow coverage, thankfully they finally opened it up on Friday as it makes getting from one place to another so much easier when you have two options to drive around the crater instead of just one.


Crater Lake Trip - 29 - East Rim Road by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

From several places on the North side of Crater Lake there are great views of some of the other mountains in the Cascade range.

Here we have Mount Thielsen.


Crater Lake Trip - 30 - Mount Thielsen by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Here we have Mount Bailey and Mount Thielsen from left to right.


Crater Lake Trip - 31 - Mount Bailey & Mount Thielsen by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

It's not only the North side of Crater Lake National Park that offers great views of some of the other mountains in the Cascade range.

Here we have Swan Lake Mountain which is located to the South East of Crater Lake.


Crater Lake Trip - 32 - Swan Lake Mountain by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

The only main road which is still closed inside the park is the one which delivers you to the top of Cloudcap Overlook, and even though the rest of the roads are clear, you can quickly see just how much snow covers the road up to Cloudcap at the moment.

Also, meet my trusty steed for this current trip, a Ford Fiesta - for our Euro viewers, yes it does have a boot/trunk too...I thought it was a Focus when I picked it up until I realised it was just a "little" bit smaller.


Crater Lake Trip - 33 - Snow & The Trusty Steed by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

I don't think I could have picked a better day as far as the weather goes, not a cloud in the sky from start to finish and just nice toasty hot temperature without getting unconfortable.

The scenery around the lake is just stunning and it's easy to fire off hundreds of shots as you circle the lake itself, and honestly having been there later in the season last year I would advise going right now when there is still snow around, as it adds so much more to the end results.


Crater Lake Trip - 34 - Scenic Beauty by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

It may look like "just another" reflection shot, but look a little closer and you will see the Phantom Ship sitting bang in the middle of the reflection of the crater wall behind.


Crater Lake Trip - 35 - The Phantom Ship by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

If like me you do homework on places to shoot from in advance of visiting, then you would probably be a little dissapointed if you got to the Phantom Ship overlook and only had a short range lens in tow.

As you can see there are a lot of trees at this overlook, so you really need to shoot the small island known as Phantom Ship from between any pair of trees to get a nice, clean shot. For the previous shot I fired from between the left and 2nd from left trees.


Crater Lake Trip - 36 - View From Phantom Ship Overlook by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

From the main visitor centre known as Rim Village, there are some great places to view the lake, and most of it's smaller details, in this case Wizard Island.


Crater Lake Trip - 37 - View From Rim Village by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Time for another reflection shot, this time of Wizard Island from the South West, shooting from a spot just a few hundred yards North of Rim Village.


Crater Lake Trip - 38 - Reflections 6 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

The main question that people ask after seeing photographs from Crater Lake is just what kind of filter or post processing has been done to make the water such a vivid blue colour.

The honest answer is none, that's what makes this place so special, not only are you standing on the rim of a huge volcano crater, but the lake that it holds inside is the most amazing colour of blue ever.

Hopefully the above shot will help show you it in more detail than the other pics...


Crater Lake Trip - 39 - Colour Of The Water by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

While most of the main stopping spots around the lake have at least a bit of area cleared to make viewing and shooting the lake as simple as possible, in the most part the crater rim is lined with trees, so getting a completely unobstructed shot of the whole spectacle can be tricky for some.

Thankfully from the Rim Village you can take the short walk to the South where the Sinsott Memorial Overlook is located. From the Overlook you have a clear, unobstructed view out over the lake.

Shot from a short distance into the Garfield Peak trail looking back North towards Rim Village.


Crater Lake Trip - 40 - Sinsott Memorial Overlook by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

There are tour boats which run frequently from the Cleetwood Trail area on the North West of the caldera, and if you look close enough you'll see two of them having just left Wizard Island.

One is heading back towards the dock at Cleetwood and the other is heading off in the direction of the Phantom Ship.


Crater Lake Trip - 41 - Boats Leaving Wizard Island by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

As I made my way through the snow covered fields towards where the Garfield Peak trail starts to rise in elevation I caught the sight of something moving out the corner of my eye.

The deer seemed to have done the exact same thing and I can only assume he/she stood there wondering why someone (me) was crazy enough to be ploughing through the snow covered field in only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt


Crater Lake Trip - 42 - Deer Near Garfield Peak Trail by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Even thought at this stage I had only ascended around 200-300 of the 970 feet climb up to Garfield Peak, the view out over some of the other mountains in the Cascade Range just had to be soaked in and captured.

The main peaks are Mount Bailey (back left) and Mount Thielsen (right).


Crater Lake Trip - 43 - View of the Cascades by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

This is the uppper section of the Garfield Peak trail which you access from the South side of Rim Village. It is described as difficult in most of the guides you will find, it's not as difficult as many other trails BUT it is unforgiving in it's continued angle of ascent.

The higher you get the narrower the path becomes and as you can see here the drop off to othe side is quite steep at certain points.

If you look to where the snow is there's a sign to warn of the dangers that lie in that huge pile of snow.

Lets just say that the word "avalanche" had been successfully expunged from my vocabulary before I tip-toe'd on past.


Crater Lake Trip - 44 - Garfield Peak Trail by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

Just before reaching Garfield Peak, the elevation gave a great vantage point from which to shoot back towards Rim Village which sits to the South West of the crater.


Crater Lake Trip - 45 - View From Up High by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

2 more batches to come, 4th will be the remaining daytime shots and the 5th will be of the awesome sunset to round off one phenomenal daytrip...

[baz7175]

Here is the penultimate group of images, which were all shot on the trusty workhorse cam, my Sony DSC-R1 which I carried all day along with the Canon EOS-60D with Sigma 10-20mm attached...

Garfield Peak gave a great, unobstructed view over the blue waters and crater wall to Mount Thielsen which towered above off in the distance.


Crater Lake Trip - 46 - View of Mount Thielsen From Garfield Peak by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

As I already mentioned previously, the views from Garfield Peak are nothing short of spectacular, and narrowing it down to this handful or so of shots wasn't an easy task let me tell you.


Crater Lake Trip - 47 - View From Garfield Peak 1 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 48 - View From Garfield Peak 2 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 49 - View From Garfield Peak 3 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 50 - View From Garfield Peak 4 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 51 - View From Garfield Peak 5 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 52 - View From Garfield Peak 6 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr


Crater Lake Trip - 53 - View From Garfield Peak 7 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

This little guy may have been small, but by hell he had one massive set of lungs on him - screaming his head off for what I can only assume was his mum or dad...no idea what he is, no doubt someone on here will be able to answer that question.


Crater Lake Trip - 54 - Mystery Animal On Garfield Peak by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

When I had descended the trail from Garfield Peak I happened upon this collection of Corvette's that had done a road trip together and stopped off at Crater Lake for the day.

Quite ironic considering the amount of time that I spent in the years gone by shooting cars, meets, shows and events for various European car mags...


Crater Lake Trip - 55 - Corvette Meet at Rim Village by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

The dark structure you see sticking out of the face of the crater is known as the Devils Backbone.

It is is a vertical wall of dark andesite which lines the cliff face and measures around 1000 feet long and 50 feet wide near the top.

The rock has been left standing while all around it the surrounding material has been worn away through natural erosion.

Of all the dikes on the walls of Crater Lake, only one, the Devil's Backbone, reaches from the water's edge to the rim. The Devil's Backbone has thin glassy selvages enclosing a paler, holocrystalline, and somewhat vesicular core rich in cristobalite.


Crater Lake Trip - 56 - The Devils Backbone by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

The final daytime shot from this upload is from the same spot that I stood at 4.35am the same morning for the pre-dawn shots, looking out head-on to Wizard Island.

The island always stands out thanks to all the different depths of water which surround it, which help to create a variety of colours against the electric blue the rest of the lake offers up.


Crater Lake Trip - 57 - Wizard Island Head-On by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

[baz7175]

And without further ado, here comes the final installment (with commentary of it all as it happened if you can be bothered reading)...

From around 5.30pm through until 8pm I pretty much rested and played a waiting game other than a few shots here and there.

Waiting for what I hear you ask, well firstly for 8.37pm which is when the sun was due to set.

If you think this is where the day got easier you'd be mistaken, as with the time it takes the sun to set being counted in a matter of minutes I knew that from the time the sun hit the edge of the crater from my vantage point just North of Skell Head that I would have only 10-15 minutes to make the ~8 mile drive back round the North of the crater rim to Hillman Peak where I could catch the sun dissapearing over the horizon with the rolling hills of the Cascades in the foreground.

Sunset shot 1 - Nailed, time to jump in the car and try to get to shot 2 in time...

p.s. around 10-15 of the 30 or so mosquito bites I picked up were all for this one, single shot...!!!


Crater Lake Trip - 58 - Sun Hits The Crater Edge (Sunset Shot 1) by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

While trying to get myself back round to Hillman Peak to capture what was left of the sunset over the Cascades, the colour of the hills and surface of the water grabbed my attention as I neared Pumice Point, around half way between where I shot the previous image and where I originally planned to shoot from for my second sunset shot.

Gamble time, continue on and hope to catch the sunset at Hillman Peak, or stop, set up the gear quickly, capture a quick panorama from 3 images and potentially lose out on the remaining sunset...gamble, every single time...now would I make it to Hillman in time after shooting this trio of images...???


Crater Lake Trip - 59 - Sunset Over Crater Lake (3-Shot Panorama - 1280px Wide) by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

I can't begin to explain how much I was willing the sun to stay hanging in the sky for just a few minutes more, as the stop off beside Pumice Point had added a good 5 or so minutes to my original plan for capturing the sunset at this iconic location.

Thankfully as I reached North Junction the sun was still hovering slightly above the horizon, but with just under 2 miles still to drive I couldn't know if someone had broken down and blocked the road or some other random bout of misfortune to thwart my best laid plans...

As I pulled the car to a halt at Hillman Peak the sun was just starting to breach the horizon, so with no time for error the tripod and camera were set up and the shutter button got a well earned workout, with the Sigma 10-20mm once again producing that amazing star pattern at f22.

Sunset Shot 2 - In the bag...and time to breathe again...


Crater Lake Trip - 60 - Sunset Over The Cascades 1 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

With the sun dipping over the horizon, and knowing that I had at least one shot in the bag from HIllman Peak (as well as having finally caught my breath again), it was time to get arty and shorten the exposure a little to get a much deeper glow as the sky started it's amazing transition from blue into reds, oranges and yellows.

With the somewhat frantic arrival at Hillman Peak I was completely oblivious to the other 10 or so cars which were parked up, everyone standing in silence either just watching the sunset unfold or capturing it just like me with their camera. It wasn't until I had shot this frame that I heard another shutter going off


Crater Lake Trip - 61 - Sunset Over The Cascades 2 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

With the sun now below the horizon it left behind it's amazing light show for everyone that had stayed behind to watch it.

For the 15-20 minutes which followed the sky started to burn with radiant reds, oscillating oranges and yummy yellows (ok enough of the random wordplay), by this point I had the remote trigger hooked up and was able to stand and admire the show as well as every so often making a small adjustment to the shutter speed to capture the amazing show of colour and light...


Crater Lake Trip - 62 - Sunset Over The Cascades 3 by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

With the sun having set and dusk well and truly on it's way out the side door too, I made one final drive South along West Rim Drive back to Discovery Point to see if there was any light left to capture above the crater.

Thankfully I was just in time to grab the sky as it transitioned from red to orange to yellow to purple to blue and find finally black as night rolled in and temperatures once again dropped to just a smidgen above freezing.

An almighty day out at Crater Lake, one that will not be easily forgotten so a big tjhanks to the Crater Lake gods for putting on such a stunning show for me to capture and share with everyone (and hello to the park ranger who stood beside me as I shot this final image - who thought I was completely nuts for having been at the park since 4.30am...!!!)

Until next time...


Crater Lake Trip - 63 - Dusk Over Crater Lake by www.bazpics.com, on Flickr

If you want to see this whole lot unfold in a slideshow, then here's the link to the Flickr Set slideshow of the day with all of the images in this thread featured:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryoneilphotography...

[Dr MAD]

Awesome Baz! A stunning collection and wonderfully informative commentary! Looks like a truly magical place. Thank you!

[paul911]

Good work Baz, looks quite a place

[chrisj_abz]

Stunning, great write up as well....

[dibbly dobbler]

Fantastic work Baz - a superb spot and hats off to your committment

[Dogsey]

Great write up too Baz!

[baz7175]

Thanks all, just noticed that next weekend is supposed to be another sunny one here, so already wondering about a trip up to the North West of here to visit the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, which is as far North and West as I can easily go without stepping into Canada...

[Adz The Rat]

Beautiful pictures Baz, it looks an amazing place to visit.

Fantastic write up too.