Crater Lake National Park: A Blue Jewel

01This week on our National Parks journey, we travel to the northwestern state of Oregon.

02Here you will find a huge, deep lake.

03Its waters seem impossibly blue.

04It is the deepest lake in America, and one of the deepest lakes in the world.

05Its water is among the clearest and purest found on Earth.

06Around the lake runs the wall of an extinct volcano.

07In the middle of the lake, a small island rises over 230 meters above the surface.

08Welcome to Crater Lake National Park.

09The lake's beauty inspires artists, photographers, and nature lovers.

10That beauty was born from the violent burst of Mount Mazama about 7,700 years ago.

11Hot liquid called magma rose from deep under the mountain, causing it to collapse.

12The powerful burst destroyed the surrounding area.

13Huge amounts of ash fell on the land.

14The burst also left an enormous circular hole in the mountain's center.

15Scientists call this a caldera.

16Over the next hundreds of years, rain and snow filled the hole with water.

17Rainfall and snowfall are the lake's only source of water.

18It has no connections to the rivers and streams around it.

19That is what keeps its waters so pure.

20As water collected, plants began to grow in the area again, and animals returned.

21Scientists say it took about 250 years for the lake to rise to its current water level.

22Crater Lake is 592 meters deep.

23It is one of the 10 deepest on Earth.

24But its depth is not the only remarkable quality.

25People are awed by its water color and clarity.

26Crater Lake is so clear that, on most days, you can see nearly 30 meters below the surface.

27The lake takes on its intense blue color because of the water's clarity.

28Sunlight reaches deep into the water.

29Crater Lake gets its name from geology.

30A crater is a large, bowl-shaped area on top of a volcano.

31The crater that formed the lake sits within the larger caldera.

32Native Americans were in the area even before the lake's formation.

33Researchers have found artifacts buried under layers of ash and dust from Mount Mazama's huge eruption.

34Following the burst, Native Americans considered Crater Lake to be a holy place.

35Ancient Native American stories describe the eruption of Mount Mazama.

36European explorers and settlers did not arrive in the area until the middle 1800s.

37In 1865, a hunter became one of the first non-Native Americans to reach the shores of Crater Lake.

38In 1870, a boy in Kansas read a newspaper article about the strange lake in Oregon.

39The story about Crater Lake fascinated the young William Gladstone Steele.

40He promised himself he would one day see this lake.

41In 1872, Steele's family moved to Portland, Oregon, about 375 kilometers north of the lake.

42Thirteen years later, Steele honored his promise and visited Crater Lake.

43Its beauty moved him greatly.

44He began a 17-year fight to preserve the area as a public park.

45Steele was a writer.

46He described one of his first visits to Crater Lake in 1886 in the West Shore magazine.

47Not a foot of the land about the lake has been touched or claimed.

48An overmastering conviction came to me that this wonderful spot must be saved, wild and beautiful, just as it was for all future generations.

49His proposal of creating a national park did not please nearby sheep herders and miners.

50But his efforts succeeded anyway.

51On May 22, 1902, Crater Lake became the country's fifth national park.

52It remains the only national park in Oregon.

53And William Gladstone Steele is called the father of Crater Lake.

54Crater Lake National Park covers 740 square kilometers.

55The lake itself makes up less than 10% of the park.

56It also includes surrounding mountains and thick forests.

57The trees shelter many kinds of animals, from black bears to elk to spotted owls.

58About 480,000 people visit Crater Lake National Park each year.

59They explore by car, bicycle, or on foot.

60Roads that encircle Crater Lake usually are open from July through October, depending on weather.

61They provide breathtaking displays of the lake's unusual blue color, as well as the forests around it.

62Crater Lake National Park also has more than 140 kilometers of hiking trails.

63The Cleatwood Cove Trail drops more than 200 meters down to the edge of Crater Lake.

64It leads to a spot where swimming is permitted.

65The water is extremely cold.

66Most swimmers cannot stay in for more than a few minutes.

67Crater Lake's average water temperature is just 3 degrees Celsius.

68In summer, the lake's surface warms to about 10 degrees Celsius.

69Visitors can also catch a boat from the end of Cleatwood Cove Trail.

70Park rangers lead visitors on boat rides around the lake.

71Visitors can also take boats to Wizard Island.

72The piece of land sits in the western part of the lake.

73Volcanic eruptions formed Wizard Island.

74It rises over 760 meters above the lake floor.

75However, most of the island, about 500 meters, is underwater.

76At Wizard Island, visitors can hike, swim, and fish.

77It is also a wonderful place to relax and enjoy nature.

78But such extraordinary places can be found all over the park.

79Discovering one's own is part of the magic to experience at Crater Lake National Park.

80I'm Ashley Thompson.

81And I'm Katie Weaver.

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