Snowshoeing Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
View of Wizard Island from the Rim Village
Mount Thielsen, headed north on W Diamond Lake Highway
A shot of the moon through the fog lit by dusk heading home
Driving Time: Portland (4 hours, 30 minutes away), Seattle (7 hours) to the South Entrance
Distance: 3 miles out and back
Elevation Gain: ~100 feet
Difficulty: easy
Traffic: crowded, no solitude
Dogs allowed: no
Bathrooms: yes, at trailhead
Fees: $30 entrance fee or America the Beautiful Pass
To cap off our Thanksgiving day (we hiked to Toketee Falls earlier in the day) we snowshoed to Discovery Point in Crater Lake National Park. We had expected the park to be pretty empty since it was a holiday but we were so wrong. The park was packed and we found ourselves waiting in line at the entrance station and trailing other cars up the snowy slopes to reach the rim. But once we were up there we luckily managed to grab a parking spot really quickly. We strapped on our snowshoes and headed west along the Rim Drive which is closed in the wintertime and can only be accessed on snowshoes. The trail was pretty well beaten for the first quarter mile and we didn’t need the snowshoes but after that point you’ll definitely need them to comfortably make it to Discovery Point. Discovery Point was pretty with views facing back towards the Rim Village as well as being really close to Wizard Island. We took a few pictures and then headed back to the parking lot. We had originally planned to stay until sunset but with the overlook being crowded with people we instead decided to head back to our AirBnb and we were treated to some really beautiful sunset views on our ride home!
More details: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/oregon/discovery-point-trail (this is for the summertime hiking trail. In the winter, start at the Rim Village Parking lot and head west along the closed Rim Road. You’ll see the trailhead as you drive in, you cant miss it!)
Youtube Vlog from our trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbLLYk-hWkQ&t=99s
This hike is on the land of the Klamath, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Molalla. To learn more about Native Land please explore this resource: https://native-land.ca/