Didn't know that glass could splash huh? Me neither.




The deep blue color shows up in the deepest water. The greenish color is evident where the depth is shallower. In truth there are lots of little magic elves working very hard day and night to make this effect as brilliant as possible for the visiting public (and birds soaring overhead...Crater Lake actually has a resident population of seagulls!) but the spurious information placards near the crater rim spew some intellectual swill about the water's unusual clarity allowing light to penetrate deeper than normal...the water absorbs all of the visible light except blue light, which for some reason that people in while coats can't explain exactly, it reflects. Since the water is so deep and so clear, virtually nothing escapes except the ridiculously pure blue light. Now I understand why the Blue Hole dive spot in Belize's Barrier Reef is so blue. Same principle: Magic elves. Who cares though, it's great for swimming in, though I fear the water is slightly less pure now that it's played host to a filthy thru-hiker.




Wizard Island from the boat ride over to it. 700 feet high folks. GEEZ.




What better way to celebrate reaching the lake's namesake crater (not actually named after the fact that the whole LAKE is in a crater/caldera but for the little eensy weensy crater on top of Wizard Island, which itself is still 300 feet across. Eensy weensy is relative here.) than by cooking up some lunch in the crater's center? Maybe throw in a crater whale and we've got the entry with the highest use of the word "crater."




The same crater from the rim. Zoom in and you can spot a few people on the far side for scale.