Great Scott!

Having been wowed by the views of Crater Lake the day before, I definitely had the bit between my teeth for climbing the National Park’s highest peak, Mount Scott.
Chipmunks scampered around the picnic area that was the starting point for our hike, looking like they had a lot more energy than I did, but I wasn’t going to let that deter me from my mission!


   
Although the mountain was a high, pumice covered ascent, the path was easy, and Shirley and I were soon treated to fantastic views back towards Crater Lake. Pretty mountain flowers occasionally presented themselves amongst the more usual pine trees, adding to the wonder of the walk.
      
It wasn’t too long before we reached the summit, and it was great to be able to just chill out in the sun, looking back towards the lake and over to Mt Thielsen in the distance. A quick descent followed, and our day was rounded off nicely by a short visit to see both the Phantom Ship and the Pumice Castle, the latter spectacularly formed by rock hardened by gasses escaping through the earth’s crust during earlier volcanic activity.
The trip to the park was capped the next morning with out best views of the whole trip. We went up to the Lake Lodge for a final panorama, and the light off the clear blue water of the lake was the most unbelievable blue. The panorama below contains the colours as we actually saw them; no computer manipulation at all! One final trip to the pinnacles (during which we spotted a beaver crossing the road), created in the same way as the Pumice Castle, and we were on our way to the Cascades Lakes Highway, and the next section of our trip.

   
Crater Lake National Park truly is a natural spectacular.

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