Wizard Island, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

In 2008 when I moved from San Francisco to Seattle, my wife and I took a few days to make the trip, including two nights camping at Crater Lake National Park. Once again, weather was generally working against us (it snowed on us, in August, that's just not fair!) and I would up with little of photographic interest to share, but in my effort to find something representative I found this photo.

Crater Lake is really a remarkable place. The lake is not formed in an impact crater (as the name suggests to me) but rather in the massive caldera of a volcano. From the rim of the caldera the cliffs drop about 1000ft down to the water's surface, where it's another 1000-2000ft down to the bottom of the lake. The water is fed by rain and snowfall (being up around 7000-8000ft elevation), and is remarkably pure - it is among the clearest waters in the world. As a result the bright blue color of the water is unlike any I've seen before. (So many of my photos in overcast skies failed to convey that very well).

Near the western rim of the lake there is Wizard Island, itself a volcanic cone - a volcano within a volcano really. As fascinating as the lake is, I found it a bit difficult to frame or present well photographically, but Wizard Island is a nice focal point in this amazing setting.

Nikon D40 | Nikon 18-200VR@38mm | f/8 | 1/400s | ISO200 | Handheld

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