Boy, last night was a blur of feverish stupor but this morning I woke, like I imagine a butterfly emerging from it’s chysalis, reborn.
Our campsite was immaculate and complete with showers and flushing toilets. Great value at $20. We were camped in amongst massive trees and to see the sun shining through the branches was glorious.
In fact the whole day has been awesome, for want of a better description. Driving through what are known as “the narrows”, basically a steep sided river valley. The Umpqua River glistening under the morning sun through the colourful autumnal leaves, beside us, together with a lovely winding trafficless road and you pinch yourself incase it’s a dream.
Built in 1949. A wooden penstock with leaks. 
We are heading for the Crater lake but stop for such beside the Diamond Lake and took advantage of the sunshine to dry out the bedding. No I didn’t wet the bed but might as well have as the sleeping sheet was sodden!
The Crater lake is at altitude. Pulling into the car park for our first look at it, stopped beside a very travelled looking Opel. Jut a tiny one of no more than 1000cc from Slovakia. Pavol and Ivana arrived in America from Vladivostok. Like us and have taken a very different course through the country but visiting many of the same sites. Lets hope we can catch up with them on their way through central America. They have a Facebook page /togetheronroads. We thought our space is small but they sleep in theirs too. Power to them..:).
The Crater Lake. WOW it’s beautiful. A collapsed caldera but with the deepest blue waters and sheer blast faces around it. You can drive around it in either direction and tossing a metaphoric coin we headed eastwards and immediately we saw large holders of obsidian. Possibly fused during the eruption of 7,700 years ago.
Volcanic plug centre stage. 
A geological fruit salad!
By 4pm the only campsite in the National Park was full we didn’t know that as we were told it was closed for the summer. Strange we thought, but not far down the road found a large sealed quadrangle with toilets, so decided we would make it our camp for the night. Soon after a large Chev. Tahoe station wagon pulled close by and the lady in halting english asked if they could camp here. After setting up camp the French couple Jean-Paul and Annie invited us over for tea. More an english custom that we gratefully accepted. They love America and have been here many times. It’s 5.45pm and the sun is just going down behind the pines. There is not a breath of wind and it’s very pleasant. As I write, two more campers have pulled in. It could get crowded!
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