For our last morning in Crater Lake National Park we had one final stop planned before heading home. A hike down the Cleetwood Cove Trail to the lakeshore. The 1.1-mile trail is the only one in the park that takes you down to the water which we thought was a fitting way to end our trip.
Sunrise behind Llao Rock on the way to the trailhead.
Crater Lake at sunrise.
Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak, and Mt. Thielsen behind Red Cone.
Cowhorn Mountain (post), Maiden Peak (post), the Three Sisters, and Mt. Thielsen.
We were the first car at the large parking area along East Rim Drive.
When we’d originally planned it we were going to be taking a boat tour (or at least a shuttle) over to Wizard Island to hike to the top of that cinder cone, but the boat tours weren’t open yet this year.
We crossed East Rim Drive and started down the trail which losses 700′ via a series of switchbacks.
Mt. Scott (post)
Dutton Cliffs, Sun Notch (post), Applegate Peak and Garfield Peak (post)
Looking down at the turnaround point.
Wouldn’t want a rock like this to come down on you.
Breakfast time.
There were “no stopping” signs at areas where the danger of rock fall was the greatest.
One of the tour boats.
Looking back at the dock area.
We took a break at the bottom enjoying the view and watching fish jump while we prepared to make the climb back up.
Couldn’t get an actual fish in a photo but I barely missed this one.
We did visit the lakeshore and touch the water before heading back up.
The dock at Cleetwood Cove.
It was a stiff hike back up to the parking area. We had had the lake to ourselves but were now passing the occasional hiker and fisherman on their way down the trail.
Not a hiker or fisherman.
Llao Rock from East Rim Drive.
We were back at the car before 8am and on our way back to Salem. It had been a wonderful trip. The weather had been good, the skies not too smokey, and the scenery spectacular. It was a bit of a bummer to have missed out on Wizard Island, Lady of the Woods and The Pinnacles trail due to the closures but that just gives us an excuse to return. In fact the closure didn’t impact our ability to check the featured hikes off our to-do list. We have now hiked at least part of 92 out of the 100 Southern Oregon/Northern California hikes with the remaining eight planned for later this year (post). Happy Trails!
Flickr: Cleetwood Cove
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3 replies on “Cleetwood Cove – 08/01/2023”
[…] Point-Hiked 9/19/2022 #22 The Watchman-Hiked 8/12/2012 7/31/2023 #23 Wizard Island-Hiked 8/1/2023 #24 Mount Scott-Hiked 10/2/2014 #25 Plaikni Falls and The Pinnacles-Hiked 7/30/2023 #26 Crater […]
[…] Pinnacles (post) and Lady of the Woods (post) and the boat tours to Wizard Island not operating (post). While we did check off those featured hikes for the purposes of our goal we vowed to return when […]
[…] unable to do in its entirety was on Wizard Island which requires taking a boat from Cleetwood Cove (post). The boats did not operate in 2023, an issue caused by the previous contracted concessionaire, so […]