Travelogue on Crater Lake

Well not all road trips turn out as planned. Not all holidays are really the best of holidays. I am sitting in Roseburg right now, in a Best Western hotel room and blogging.... after quite sometime of a period when I had nothing to write about.
We set off around 9 on Saturday, Sept 1st... almost 3 hours later than what we had thought. A dinner at the Indian restaurant Pabla which turned out to be quite good, and then we headed off to Portland. I am still pretty dis-oriented, so my sentences might not make sense, ...... bear with me. If I don't write this now, I probably never will.

The plan, was to see Crater Lake, maybe do the scenic route through the Columbia gorge, and then do a wildlife safari at Roseburg. Well, with the delay and last minute continuous change of plans, we arrived around 2 in the night at Portland, and spent the night at a very decrepit (not sure of the word) motel 6 room which (due to a mistake while reserving) turned out to be a smoking room. I promise (for lack of a better word) that I will never enter a Motel 6 again.
Its not that I have not been used to the smell of cigarette smoke before, but the dilapidated room and the strong stench of cigarettes would really be enough to turn a holiday mood sour.
With getting accustomed to that, and early morning plans, it wasn't surprising that we sleepy-heads could not make it out of there before 9-10. A hurried breakfast at Starbucks on coffee and cake, a long 3 hour drive playing word games, and we were all in quite a good mood once again. Lunch was at a quaint little place called Eugene which I quite liked..... it had overhanging flowers and a beautifully homely looking mall/downtown. When I say flowers, imagine small pink blue yellow flowers on branches falling out of overhanging pots and you will have got the picture.

We arrived at Crater Lake around 3:30. Its beautiful...... no doubt !!
When you first arrive at the lookout point, and look down into a gorge of pure, pristine, clear blue water with a tinge of sea-green, there is nothing you can do but hold your breath for a second.
So imagine a blue stretch of rippleless water , a small island called the Wizard island nestled in between (so named maybe becoz it resembles a wizard's hat), and surrounded on all sides by the grey dust of steep gorge edges and coniferous trees..... and thats Crater Lake for you. Apparently, there is a boat ride to the island, but becoz of so many others who had decided to make the same plans on the same day and stood in line since 7 in the morning, we had no chance of taking the boat tour. We took the Cleetwood trail , which led us right down to the water. There we sat for quite sometime, dangling bare legs like children in the freezing ice-water, posing for snaps and sitting just quietly or pulling each other's legs. The hike down had been an easy downhill. The hike up.... was a laborious steep climb. :) Needless to say I am sure it was a very good exercise for an otherwise out-of-shape hiker like me.

After that, we took the rim drive around the lake. As one of us remarked, we probably saw the lake from all possible angles. And yet somehow I never felt that this was what we had come for.
On the way back, we stopped at Sun-notch point for pictures. That was a quarter of a mile hike.
Do you know the poem,
"To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour......."
Out of the entire trip, this was probably the quietest and most silent place that I had been to. It was so quiet infact, you could hear yourself think apart from the calls of birds in the distant trees. Out of the entire trip, it was only there that I felt at peace with myself and with nature. Out of the entire trip, it was only here that I connected... with myself, my thoughts and probably nature. Out of the entire trip this is the part I will remember the most. People talk about why do we go to temples to pray, is it that God is present only there ? Well of all places, it was here that I would have just knelt down and prayed. :) Obtuse , yes but sometimes I can't help myself.

Anyway, at the end of it a drive for 8 hours to see the lake hardly seemed a justification to me. And given a chance, I would probably never do this trip again. Leave alone this trip, I may probably never do a road trip again .....except with special someones. We might end up doing the safari tomorrow, or not. I am really not sure of my thoughts at this point except that it would be good to just get back to Seattle and home, as I know it. :)