Crater Lake - recommendations?

If you are camping, I would recommend staying outside of the park, like up toward Diamond lake or Odell lake and take a day trip to Crater Lake. Those National Park campgrounds tend to cram hundreds of spots into one campground, and you practically end up on top of your neighbors. The short boat ride on the lake can be fun activity while in the park. The drive around the lake is nice. Enjoy

http://www.diamondlake.net/lodging-vintage-cabins 

I've always wanted to visit Train Mountain in nearby Chiloquin: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Mountain_Railroad

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g51804-d4310542-Reviews-Train_Mountain_Railroad_Museum-Chiloquin_Oregon.html

alerts & conditions

https://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

Are you staying or just passing through? We used to go camping there and nearby. We camped at Diamond Lake (BrokenArrow campground) to be near the Park but without having to scramble for camping space. We also stayed at the Lost Creek Campground in the Park, south east of the lake, nice spot but lots of mosquitos. The Lost Creek Campground is on the road to the Pinnacles, an unusual and cool sight (along a longer valley of them than in this photo)

There's a less used one-way portion of the East Rim Road that starts at the junction of the Pinnacles Road going west. It's away from the Lake, through meadows, creeks, rocks.. it's a good road and quite nice. Our teens didn't think it was as cool as we did - no spectacular views that I remember, just closeup scenery in a beautiful place.

As Wngfan said, the drive on the Rim Road around the lake is nice and you also have good views of the mountains and valleys around there. Mt. Thielsen has an interesting form, sharp and pointy.

Greg used to camp with our son at Union Creek Campground, west of the Park. That's where he was when Jerry died, I got in touch with him there by asking the Rangers to tell him to call, there was a family emergency. He was sorry to cut the trip short but knew he needed to come home.

Have a great trip, post pics please. This is a good map:

http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/online-library/wp-content/uploads/CRL...

I haven't been there since early 90's also.  So I don't know if this is still the case,  but they let you fish there,  no license needed.  So bring a pole and a few rooster - tails.  Bring extra water if you walk down to the water for the boat ride to Wizard Island.  The walk uphill in the sun can be some work.  Some people spend a few hours on the island,  have a picnic,  etc.

Like everybody,  I camped near Diamond Lake and there's another one called Lemolo.  I seem to remember doing a long hike near their and tenting in the woods near the trail.
http://www.lemololakeresort.com

And of course read up on the Indian legends regarding Crater Lake.  They would avoid the place.

Kai and I started our first-ever "road trip" at Crater Lake (mainly just stayed at Crater Lake, but also visited the Rogue River and Oregon Caves National Monument.

We LOVE just about everything about that park.

I recommend that you reserve the boat ride to Wizard Island.  We paid extra to be dropped off at Wizard Island and picked up by another boat.  It allowed us to climb the Island's crater peak and enjoy a couple hours of seemingly having the island to ourselves.  (Lots of steep hiking to get to/from the boat dock and large blocks of rock to scramble on the island).

Another highlight for us was hiking to the top of Mount Scott, the highest peak in the park.

Perhaps our favorite outing was a "Death Hike" loop, which started on the Pacific Crest Trail to Red Cone; we went off trail from their and enjoyed scrambling up the slippery/loose slope to the top, then to another cone north of there, and finally walking through the pumice desert back to the road, returning to our car.

We camped at Mazama Village, which was fine for us.  We weren't above going to the lodge there to have a lazy breakfast (or two).  Seemed pretty cheap for N.P. food (at least in CA dollars).

We also enjoyed taking Route 62 east to the Rogue River Gorge Overlook, which I believe is in Union Creek.  Pretty cool creek/rapid/rock formations.  Had an ice cream cone at one of the roadside shops there.

I haven't stayed at Diamond Lake, but I've viewed it from afar and it looks incredible.

I hope that the skies are clear for you.

Have fun!

Natural Bridges campground is real close...  camp along the headwaters of the Rogue River, just above where it disappears into lava tubes!  Great camping, many cool things to checkout, easy hikes.  When the rivers high, there are lots of geysers and spouts where it goes underground.  Right next to Union Campground, with lots of riverside camping in large trees.  Also, Umpqua hot springs,  several hot springs / warm springs near Oakridge, and many waterfalls all over that area!

http://www.campgroundsoregon.com/oregon_campgrounds/natural_bridge_campg...

Also, if you want to drive 1.5 hours North, there is Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which has a large (ie: comfortable) lava tube, called "Lava River Cave".   And a nice cinder cone.  And a pretty cool obsidian flow, etc.  It's pretty close to Bend.

Fort Rock is another cool feature, but that's close to 2 hours Northeast from Crater Lake.

>>>>>We also enjoyed taking Route 62 east to the Rogue River Gorge Overlook, which I believe is in Union Creek

West of CL.

Newberry crater also has hot springs in both lakes (calderas), though harder to find with all the development that's gone on there recently.  Also, can drive to the top of the rim on a nice paved road (great upgrade), up to Paulina Peak, which is just shy of 8,000 feet.  Has spectacular views in all directions, with one of most spectacular views of the Cascades.  Can normally see down to Mt Shasta in CA, north to Mt Adams in WA, and south into NV...   likely too smokey right now with all the regional wildfires.  Lots of great rockhounding in central Oregon as well.  

Paulina Lake also has a hot spring (and good fishing).  It's kind of a sandy / muddy trough at the far end of the lake from where you park, and you might need to shovel it out a bit... but fun to soak in the natural hot bathtub and then cool off in the lake. 

I used to use the Bill Kaysing book as a hot spring guide,  but there are more modern ones.  Because of its age, some of the springs were un-findable,  or the bridge over the creek was out, or...

But we had a lot of fun exploring remote areas in search of the spots.

Yeah, both Paulina lake and East lake (Newberry crater) have hot springs, the ones on the SE side of Paulina lake use to be easy to find (haven't been there a few years), just wade on out and enjoy the hot spots, the ones on East lake often need to be dug out, likely not a problem this late in the year.  

https://soakoregon.com/paulina-lake-hot-springs/

https://soakoregon.com

Waterfalls in Oregon;

http://oregonwaterfalls.net

Had to dig on FB to find a few old pics (not on my current computer, rats!)

A partial view of Newberry crater seen from Paulina Peak (just shy of 8k feet),  with my brother Jim, Paulina lake on the left, East lake on the right;

Big trees and natureeeehaw stuff next to Wall Creek Warm springs, just north of Oakridge.  Lots of hotsprings around there, but I've never seen any body at the warm springs, has big trees and ferns and shit (camping there too), short trail to the spring.  

Salt Creek Falls, also near Oakridge, and at 286 feet (main fall), is the 3rd largest in Oregon!

Air Quality Index currently "Hazardous" at Crater Lake

The NWS forecast is for smoke and more smoke for the rest of this week and on. When are you going, JP?

>>>>I hear some of the smoke might blow out by then. Hopefully so.

Hope you didn't hear that from someone you made a reservation with. Local news weather downplays these things that can decimate tourism. Good luck!

I suspect the wind directions are changing somewhat by the weekend since our forecast of haze changes to clear (possible rain Friday night > Sat) on Friday. Check where the wind is coming from.

A beautiful and fun site is to look at is: https://www.windy.com/?44.069,-123.082,5

Here's the forecast for Crater Lake, and a link for the Incident information System, could be useful (has maps of the current large fires)

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov

Here's your air quality map for Medford and area (can scroll to other spots)

http://aqicn.org/city/usa/oregon/medford/

Forecast from Tuesday Afternoon;

<<South Central Oregon Cascades-

Including the cities of Crater Lake, Crescent Lake, Diamond Lake, and Union Creek

THURSDAY...Sunny. Haze and patchy smoke. Highs in the mid 80s to mid 90s. East winds around 5 mph shifting to the southwest in the afternoon. .

THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Haze and patchy smoke. Lows in the lower to mid 50s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. .

FRIDAY...Sunny in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Not as warm. Haze and patchy smoke. Highs in the lower 70s to lower 80s. .

FRIDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Colder. Haze in the evening. Patchy smoke through the night. Lows in the mid 30s to mid 40s. .

SATURDAY...Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming sunny. Patchy smoke. Highs in the lower 70s to lower 80s. .

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...Clear. Patchy smoke. Lows in the lower 40s to lower 50s. Highs in the mid 70s to mid 80s. .

SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY...Clear. Patchy smoke. Lows in the mid 40s to mid 50s. Highs in the mid 70s to mid 80s. .MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY...Mostly clear. Patchy smoke. Lows in the mid 40s to mid 50s. Highs in the mid 70s to mid 80s.

>>

So many local fires, no real way to get away from the smoke down there, just a matter if you'll have any visibility at all, with the answer hopefully being yes!  There's a low that's been parked offshore for a week that's suppose to come on shore Friday, bringing much needed rain to WA and the north Oregon coast.  Down there it'll be a wind shift to the west at the surface, which will limit the smoke to only a dozen fires instead of a hundred, lol 

This afternoons smoke (smoke gets worse as the day heats up and the fires get more explosive); 

And that pesky off-shore low that should be approaching in the next few days.  The variable they're not talking about yet, will there be a chance of thunderstorms in the Cascades when it comes thru, I think there could be a small chance.

I'm going to be leading a pack of wild RV's from Reno to Portland over 4 days in a few weeks, should be fun...  hoping to take everyone rockhounding, perhaps the mud pots at Mt Lassen, Pinacles at Crater Lake, and some of the suggestions I and others made above.  Now that you've done the trip, any suggestions for places we should go?  I'm use to pickups, taking an RV armada (5 or 6) presents some unique challenges (like parking at In-N-Out, LOL)

Glad you had a good trip! (We'll definitely be supporting the local biz's as we can)

Went there maybe 6-7 yrs ago in August, love that place! We camped next to the car near the park and have wonderful memories of it being 95 degrees during the day and freezing our asses off in the tent at night. We weren't prepared for real camping since we were coming back from a wedding in Portland