Happy Birthday, Tracy!!

Hi Tracy!

I have searched near and far for the perfect birthday gift (other than the perfect iPhone) and I could find nothing that would suit.  Sorry.

Instead, I'm going to give you one of my favorite memories that included you and our kids on the big adventure of August, 1996, when we went to Oregon, Washing, Idaho and Utah.  One of my favorite places on our trip was the day we spent at Crater Lake in Oregon.

On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.

The lake is five miles wide by 6 miles long and averages 1,148 feet deep.  The deepest sounding is 1,949 feet, but such numbers are always in dispute in fresh water lakes because of snow and rain run off.  Anyway, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the 3rd deepest in the world.  There are other deep lakes, but their depths are in question because of the difficulty of measuring them due to their remoteness.  (The deepest lake in the world, Lake Vostok, lies beneath 13,000 feet of ice in Antarctica. -  I don't get it either.)

The Crater Lake we know and love is actually Mount Mazama, one of many mountains in the Cascade Range volcanic arc (can you say Mt. St. Helens?)  In 5700 BC, the mountain erupted and blew out 12 cubic miles of dust, dirt and ashes, creating a caldera, which is the name of the bottom of a crater in a volcano.  Other eruptions occurred, but only on the inside the caldera.  You see Wizard Island.  It is the result of one of those.  There is also substantial cinder cone, Merriam Cone. but it is mostly submerged.

If you look in the center of the picture, the high prominence is a remnant of Mount Mazama.

Because Crater Lake has no inlets or outlets, it contains some of the purest water to be found anywhere.  After the Caldera cooled, the thick forests began to grow on the desolate, blasted ground and water and snow did not evaporate.  It took an estimated 792 years to fill the lake.  To what I am sure will be the great joy of visitors there, there is hydrothermal activity on the lake floor and another eruption is possible.

This is a bathymetric survey of the lake, indicating variations in the lake bed.  The walls of the lake as they disappear into the water appear to be shear cliffs, but below the water, there are indications of rock slides that form the gradual increasing depth below the lake surface.  

The Klamath tribe of Native Americans, who may have witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake, have long regarded the lake as a sacred site. Their legends tell of a battle between the sky god Skell and Llao, the god of the underworld. Mount Mazama was destroyed in the battle, creating Crater Lake. The Klamath people used Crater Lake in vision quests, which often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks. Those who were successful in such quests were often regarded as having more spiritual powers. The tribe still holds Crater Lake in high regard as a spiritual site.

I remember the steep trail and numerous switchbacks we hiked with the kids when we went down to the lake and took the boat.  That was such a fun time.  Such clear sky and blue water and deeply green trees.  The little kids were real troopers hiking most of the way under their own power.

Thanx for a life time of wonderful memories.

I love you, Tracy, and happy birthday!

Lewis