In July of 2022, I took a trip to one of the top of my Oregon wishlist destinations – Crater Lake. I had always wanted to visit since I moved to Oregon 13 years ago, but I also specifically wanted to stay inside the park at the only lodging with views of the lake, Crater Lake Lodge. In this first post of my series, let me walk you through some logistics of planning in case it will help you plan your Crater Lake adventure. In particular, I will highlight the route from Portland using Highway (Hwy) 58 to Crater Lake.
Lodging
My desire to stay inside the park was to make watching sunrise and sunset easier rather then driving in from outside the park, which adds 30 minutes to get in and out of the park. Also, sometimes there is a lot of mist or fog for part of the day before it clears up – you may not even be able to see the lake at first! So being able to chill in our room and look out the window waiting was worth the price. As an example, here is what the atmosphere was like on July 5 at 8:21 am, then later at 1pm. Maybe you”ll luck out to a day that starts with sunshine – you may still want to enjoy staying as late as possible (especially with the sunset so late in the summer) to enjoy the park at sunset or dusk like in the last photo below which was beautiful even though the sunset didn’t work out because of too many clouds in the sky.
There are only two lodging options inside the park. Besides Crater Lake Lodge, the other being the more rustic Cabins at Mazama Village. Technically there is also Mazama Campground, but I did not want to camp. All three of these are often booked months in advance. Last year, I was fortunate enough to find reservations open at Crater Lake Lodge during the 4th of July week. It was a combination of persistence and luck – I kept checking the website for when I could see dates that could be booked.
You’ll be able to tell because when you click the date dropdown, some of the days will already be blocked for check-in- any day that is not, pick each of them to see how long the stay could be. Don’t be surprised that even though for check-out the day is not blocked, you get a message saying no availability the first time- when site reloads again, the dropdown calendar for checkout will be more accurate. Just be patient and try again and again and again.
Make sure you visit the actual Crater Lake Lodge website operated by Crater Lake Hospitality, not the one that shows “National Park Reservations” as the site. Also try to look 6 months out if you can.
On one of the website visits towards the end of January, well checking sporadically throughout the weeks, I saw that Monday July 4-Thursday July 7 was available, and immediately booked it. When researching, since most hotels let you have free cancelation up to a certain amount of time, I highly encourage you to make the reservation first and then figure it out. Cancellations happen from others which will free up inventory, so you have to keep checking back.
Even when we visited in early July, there was still snow on the ground, and only half the drive around the lake was open based on plowing the huge amount of snowfall they get each year and clearing the road of debris. So try to shoot for late summer to early fall during your date browsing if you want to make the most of your visit. Given that the lodge is only open May to October, you don’t have that many months to try clicking around, exploring dates and trying and retrying!
There are 3 dining options within the park. The Crater Lake Lodge Dining Room only offers a breakfast buffet or $52 dinner buffet – we ate dinner there our first night. We preferred the Annie Creek Restaurant in Mazama Village for burger and pizza, or ordered bites and drinks at the Crater Lake Great Room. Rim Village Café wasn’t very vegetarian friendly with basic options of sandwiches and hot dogs, chicken tenders, fries, with the only veg friendly one being a pb&j or getting a grab and go salad, and was often packed with people since Annie Creek is farther away from the rim and the lodge dining room wasn’t open for lunch. At one point after you got your food you had to get in the same line as the gift shop queue, which was long.
How To Get To Crater Lake
Next, if you are coming down from Portland like I was, there are a few scenic paths you can take. One is to go through Hood River or through Mt Hood and then south via US Route 97, the Dalles-California Highway. I decided to take this route back versus to Crater Lake because it is one that takes longer – 5 1/2 (if through Mt Hood) to 6 hours (through the Dalles). I decided I would rather get to Crater Lake sooner on the way there, and then take the longer way on the return. This also allowed me to leisurely stop at Smith Rock State Park, and share a flight of beer at Mount Hood Brewing, or enjoy the eclectic roadhouse atmosphere and a bbq meal at Skyway Bar and Grill, for dinner on the way home. And it perks me up to drive towards Mount Hood on the way home to get me excited about almost arriving in Portland after some of the less scenic parts of the highway.
The other two options utilize I-5 south towards Eugene, and then going east either on Hwy 58 the Willamette Scenic Highway, or east more south at Roseburg via Hwy 138 the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway.
Hwy 58 is the route I chose because it is 30 minutes faster to Crater Lake. Along this scenic highway, you can visit multiple covered bridges, and the second tallest waterfall in Oregon. The route will also skirt two reservoirs, Willamette Fish Hatchery, and McCredie Hot Springs if you wish (I linked a blogpost with great info on the clothing optional natural hot springs if you are interested). That said, it was incredibly tempting to take Hwy 138, known also as Thundering Waters highway, which offers 15-20 waterfalls along the route, many which are very short walks of 1-2 miles roundtrip from the parking. For some examples of the waterfalls, I liked this concise video from Oregon Family Adventures featuring 7 family friendly waterfalls. For the brochures with more details on hikes and waterfalls, check out the US Forest Service Umpqua National Forest brochures here, especially the Thundering Waters brochure.
I mentioned I selected Hwy 58, which is fastest to Crater Lake – with no stops, ~4.5 hours. Here are my 3 top stops on the way to Crater Lake.
Covered Bridges
The first of the 2 covered bridges we visited on Hwy 58 to Crater Lake is, Lowell Covered Bridge. This is about 2 hours drive from Portland, perfect time for a restroom stop. There is a paved parking lot and vault toilets and a picnic area with benches overlooking the river, and you may see several people fishing.
Lowell Covered Bridge is the widest covered bridge in Oregon with a width of 24 feet. The original bridge was built in 1907 by a crew of 8 men. The current bridge was built in 1945 after truck damage, and in 1953 the bridge was raised 6 feet for anticipated water level increases from a new dam. Now the bridge is an interpretive center and home to several nests of swallows.
The second bridge 25 min away is Office Covered Bridge. Office Bridge. The original was built in 1924, then the bridge was rebuilt twice, first rebuilt 1941 and then 1944 from damage of storm waters. Besides the attractive red roof, the bridge also features a separate pedestrian walkway alongside its still used one-lane crossing. In fact, you have to cross over the bridge to get to the parking lot on the other side, where you can also find some picnic benches and a restroom area.
Office Covered Bridge is also the longest covered bridge in Oregon at 180 feet long. To me, the pedestrian walkway with the open windows giving you a view of the river was the real highlight though! There are multiple other covered bridges in this area but I chose to only stop at the widest and longest.
Salt Creek Falls
Drive another 40 minutes from Office Covered Bridge and we reach Salt Creek Falls. Note that visiting the Salt Creek Falls Observation Site and Picnic Area does require a $5 day pass. We did not get great signal at the location and used cash in an envelope at the site, but you may want to but it online first and print it out, or buy in person at one of their listed locations, if you don’t have an annual or interagency pass.
Salt Creek Falls is a cascade and plunge waterfall on Salt Creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork Willamette River, that plunges into a gaping canyon. Salt Creek Falls is also Oregon’s second highest single drop waterfall (after Multnomah Falls), cascading 286 feet. Salt Creek Falls is one of Oregon’s most powerful falls, with average yearly flow of 50,000 gallons per minute surging over the rocks.
An observation platform is located at the top of the waterfall 50 yards from the parking lot, very accessible. There is also a steep gravel trail with stairs from the platform to the waterfall’s base that we did not traverse,. When you visit, you will see the path to the observation platform and the trail on your right side. Don’t miss also taking a little stroll to your left on the short pathway to get a closer view of the plung. And in the area by the parking lot, check out the map for other trails here and the best lake name I’ve ever seen, Too Much Bear Lake.
From Salt Creek Falls, it was about 2 hours to Crater Lake Lodge – including a stop for gas at the last gas station before you enter the park in Chemault (about 30 minutes outside of the park). In an upcoming post, I will share more about visiting Crater Lake.
Have you driven along Hwy 58 or Hwy 138 before – or even both? Which route would you have chosen?
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