49 Fun Facts About Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park is in which US state?

Oregon's only national park, Crater Lake lies in the southern Cascade Range north-east of Medford; its lake is the deepest in the United States.

Crater Lake fills the caldera of which collapsed volcano?

Mount Mazama, a stratovolcano in the southern Cascades, grew over hundreds of thousands of years before its summit collapsed into the emptied magma chamber; the Klamath people witnessed the eruption and kept its memory in legend.

How deep is Crater Lake at its deepest point?

1,949 feet (594 m) was the maximum depth measured by a 2000 multibeam sonar survey, making Crater Lake the deepest lake in the United States; its average depth is about 1,148 feet.

How is Crater Lake refilled, given that no streams flow into or out of it?

Entirely by rain and snow falling on it, the lake is kept at a nearly constant level because evaporation and seepage balance the precipitation; with no streams carrying in sediment, it is among the clearest lakes on Earth.

Roughly how long ago did the climactic eruption and collapse create the caldera?

About 7,700 years ago (around 5700 BC) the volcano's climactic eruption emptied its magma chamber and the summit collapsed; ash from the blast forms a dated marker layer across the Pacific Northwest.

The surface of Crater Lake lies at roughly what elevation above sea level?

About 6,180 feet (1,883 m) is the elevation of the lake surface, whose level varies only a few feet from year to year because precipitation is balanced by evaporation and seepage.

Roughly how much rock and ash did the climactic eruption eject?

About 50 cubic kilometres (12 cubic miles) of magma erupted as ash and pumice, dozens of times the output of Mount St. Helens in 1980; the ash layer is found across the Pacific Northwest and into Canada.

The volcanoes of the Cascades are fed by the subduction of which piece of oceanic crust?

The Juan de Fuca Plate, a small remnant of the ancient Farallon Plate, slides beneath the North American Plate off the Pacific Northwest coast; hydrothermal vents on the lake floor show the volcano is dormant, not extinct.

What is Wizard Island?

A cinder cone that rose after the caldera formed, Wizard Island erupted onto the caldera floor while the lake was filling and rises about 755 feet above the water; summer boat tours land there.

What did William Gladstone Steel name the crater on top of Wizard Island in 1885?

The Witches Cauldron was Steel's name for the crater at the island's summit, which he named Wizard Island on the same 1885 visit because its shape recalled a wizard's hat; a trail climbs to the crater rim.

Why can't visitors see Merriam Cone, a volcanic cone in the north-east of the lake?

Its summit is about 500 feet under water: Merriam Cone, a volcanic cone on the caldera floor, erupted while the lake was filling, and its smooth, craterless surface shows it was built under water rather than in air.

Phantom Ship, the small jagged island in the southeast of the lake, is made of rock roughly how old?

About 400,000 years old, Phantom Ship's andesite is the oldest exposed rock in the caldera, a remnant of an early cone; seen in fog or low light the jagged island looks like a ghostly sailing ship.

The Old Man of the Lake is what?

A tree trunk that has floated upright since at least 1896, the Old Man of the Lake is a 30-foot mountain hemlock stump first recorded by geologist Joseph Diller; carbon dating suggests the tree is at least 450 years old.

How far did the Old Man of the Lake travel during three months of tracking in 1938?

At least 62 miles: tracked between July and September 1938, the stump covered 62.1 miles, moving fastest on windy days; geologist Joseph Diller had shown it drifted by tethering it and finding it a quarter-mile away five years later.

What name did the three gold prospectors who found the lake in June 1853 give it?

'Deep Blue Lake' was the name chosen by John Wesley Hillman, Henry Klippel and Isaac Skeeters, prospectors hunting for a lost gold mine; the spot where they first saw it on 12 June 1853 became Discovery Point.

How did William Gladstone Steel first learn of Crater Lake as a Kansas schoolboy in 1870?

From a newspaper article wrapped around his lunch, Steel read of the lake as a schoolboy in 1870; he first saw it in 1885, walking the last 20 miles from Fort Klamath, and spent 17 years lobbying for a park.

How did the 1886 USGS expedition measure the lake's depth?

A pipe on piano wire from a survey boat — a half-ton craft hauled up the mountain — gave 168 soundings; the deepest, 1,996 feet, came remarkably close to the modern sonar figure.

Which president signed the act creating Crater Lake National Park on 22 May 1902?

Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill on 22 May 1902, making Crater Lake the first national park created during his presidency; Steel's lobbying and the 1886 survey data had made the case.

The mountaineering club that christened the volcano took its own name from which animal?

Mountain goat is the meaning of 'mazama', the name the Portland climbing club adopted at its founding on the summit of Mount Hood in July 1894; the club's later convention at the lake named the volcano after itself.

In Klamath legend, Llao of the Below World battled which chief of the Above World?

Skell, chief of the Above World, defeated Llao in a battle of hurled rocks and fire that destroyed Llao's mountain home, a story matching the geological record; Llao Rock and Skell Head on the rim carry their names.

How much snow falls on the park in an average year?

About 463 inches, roughly 39 feet, falls on park headquarters in an average year, among the highest totals at any long-term US weather station; drifts of 10 to 15 feet linger on the rim into late spring.

When did the lake last freeze over completely?

1949 saw the last complete freeze; the lake's great depth stores summer heat and mild Pacific air keeps winters moderate, so ice rarely forms, and a 1985 freeze covered only about 95 percent of the surface.

What record clarity depth did scientists measure with a Secchi disc in 1997?

Typical readings are about 120 feet; a 2025 reading of just 78 feet raised concern that the water is getting cloudier.

Which fish thrive in the lake, which is believed to have had no native fish at all?

Kokanee salmon and rainbow trout are the two species that survived from decades of stocking that began in 1888; the lake is believed to have had no native fish, and anglers need no licence there.

What is the only way for visitors to reach the lake shore?

Hiking down the steep Cleetwood Cove Trail, a 1.1-mile path that drops about 700 feet at an 11 percent grade, is the sole route to the water; swimming is allowed at the bottom, where the boat dock also lies.

How were the tour boats on Crater Lake delivered to the water?

By helicopter: with no road to the shore, each tour boat was slung beneath a helicopter and lowered onto the lake; the boats stop at Wizard Island on summer tours.

How long is the Rim Drive that circles the caldera?

33 miles long, Rim Drive circles the caldera with some 30 overlooks; because of the deep snowpack it is usually fully open only from July to October.

What is the highest point in the park?

Mount Scott, at 8,929 feet, is a satellite cone on the park's eastern edge, reached by a 2.5-mile trail; from the summit the whole caldera is visible, and on clear days the view stretches more than 100 miles.

Llao Rock on the north side rises how far above the lake?

About 1,800 feet above the water, Llao Rock is a thick rhyodacite lava flow that filled an explosion crater not long before the climactic eruption and was sliced through by the caldera collapse, exposing its cross-section.

What historic structure, built in 1932, stands at the top of the Watchman Peak trail?

A fire lookout tower, the Watchman Lookout Station, was built on the 8,013-foot summit in 1932 in the rustic style and is listed on the National Register; the 0.8-mile trail climbs from the west side of Rim Drive.

Which long-distance hiking route running from Mexico to Canada passes through the park?

The Pacific Crest Trail, about 2,650 miles from the Mexican to the Canadian border, runs north-south through the park's western forests; an alternate route lets hikers follow the rim for lake views.

The Pinnacles, tall spires south of the lake, formed how?

Hot gas cemented ash into channels that erosion later exposed: steam and gases rising through the thick pyroclastic-flow deposits in Sand Creek canyon hardened the ash around each vent, and streams later washed away the loose ash between them.

Why is the Pumice Desert north of the lake almost bare of plants millennia after the eruption?

It drains water too fast and the soil is poor: the Pumice Desert's deep pumice and ash hold almost no nutrients and let rain sink straight through, so few trees have taken root there since the eruption.

Why was Crater Lake Lodge, open since 1915, closed abruptly in 1989?

Engineers feared the Great Hall might collapse: cables had already been strung between its bowing walls, and inspections in 1989 found the structure unsafe, so the lodge shut until a $15 million rebuild reopened it in May 1995.

The Sinnott Memorial Overlook, built in 1931 below Rim Village, honours what kind of person?

A US congressman, Nicholas J. Sinnott, who served in the House until 1928, is honoured by the Sinnott Memorial Overlook, built in 1931 into the caldera wall below Rim Village with an exhibit room and a parapet view.

In which year did the US Mint release the state quarter that shows Crater Lake on its reverse?

2005 was the year of the state's quarter, the 33rd in the series, whose reverse shows Wizard Island and the caldera rim; since 2002 a Crater Lake licence plate has also raised money for the park.

What was the volcano's approximate height before its collapse?

About 12,000 feet was the estimated summit height, which would have topped Mount Hood, the state's present high point at about 11,240 feet; the collapse left a rim that stands no higher than about 8,150 feet.

Which bird, famous for caching whitebark pine seeds, is a common sight on the rim?

Clark's nutcracker, a grey-and-black corvid, buries tens of thousands of whitebark pine seeds each autumn and recovers them by memory; the pines around the rim depend on the bird to spread their seeds.

Which of these mammals lives in Crater Lake National Park?

American pika, a small relative of rabbits, lives in the talus slopes along the rim, where its sharp 'eep' call is often heard; black bears, elk, marmots and martens also live in the park.

The Klamath name for Crater Lake is what?

Giiwas is the Klamath name for the lake, which tribal members traditionally approached only for vision quests and spirit journeys; their oral history preserved a memory of the eruption their ancestors witnessed.

What temperature does Crater Lake's deep water, below about 260 feet, hold year-round?

About 38 °F (3 °C) is the steady temperature of the deep water below roughly 260 feet, where sunlight no longer warms it; the surface ranges from near freezing in winter into the 60s °F on summer afternoons.

How large is Crater Lake National Park?

About 183,000 acres — 183,224 acres, or 286 square miles — make up the park, which includes the caldera, the volcano's forested flanks and the Pumice Desert to the north.

Which river rises at Boundary Springs in the park's north-west corner?

The Rogue River begins at Boundary Springs, where groundwater gushes from the pumice near the park's northern boundary; it then flows roughly 215 miles west to the Pacific at Gold Beach.

Where does Crater Lake rank in age among US national parks?

Fifth-oldest of the national parks, after Yellowstone (1872), Sequoia and Yosemite (1890) and Mount Rainier (1899), Crater Lake was established on 22 May 1902.

In which year did all fish stocking in Crater Lake come to an end?

1941 was the last year of stocking, which had begun in 1888 when William Steel carried 600 trout fingerlings up the mountain in buckets; only 37 survived the trip, and six species were introduced over the decades.

In which year did the Cleetwood Cove Trail down to the lake first open?

1960 was the year the Cleetwood Cove Trail opened on the north side of the caldera; boat tours of the lake depart from the dock at its foot.

Which extinct volcano in the park's southwest corner survives mainly as a large volcanic plug?

Union Peak, at 7,709 feet in the park's south-west corner, is the eroded core of an extinct volcano, a plug of solidified lava left after glaciers stripped away the softer cone; a steep trail reaches its summit.

Only which Canadian body of water is deeper than Crater Lake in all of North America?

Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories reaches 2,014 feet, the only North American lake deeper than Crater Lake, which ranks among the ten deepest lakes in the world.

Roughly how far across is Crater Lake?

5 by 6 miles is the lake's extent, giving a surface of about 20 square miles; the caldera rim around it rises as much as 2,000 feet above the water.