Crater Lake & Salt Creek Falls

 It seems Sunday has defaulted to our exploring day. Today was Crater Lake with a stop at Salt Creek Falls. This was Bruno’s first National Park visit.

We had three ominous signs we should reconsider our choice. First off I couldn’t find my national park passport book 2nd of all some places I wanted to see along highway 138. We’re closed due to fires. Finally as we were heading toward Oak Ridge we began to notice smoke in the air. Should we abandon ship? The last time we were at crater Lake it was smoky then too so once we eat out an Internet signal, we checked the air quality in the area and crater Lake was looking pretty OK. Turns out ominous signs mean nothing. 

We stopped in Oak Ridge to top off the gas tank, while also scouting the local Dairy Queen for a future reference. Ice cream might be in our future.

Our next stop was Salt Creek Falls. None of us had been there before and I’ve always wanted to go see it. It’s a gorgeous spot. Well worth the stop, and a short easy hike to the viewpoint. Bruno did well with a few dogs that were there. We never really had to get close to anyone.



Salt Creek Falls

We finally arrived at crater Lake. It would be Bruno‘s first visit, and it had been about 14 years since our last visit. We drove the east rim first stopping at a viewpoint for lunch. I love the off-season. There were hardly any crowds and it was lovely. There was hardly any smoke just a bit of haze.



Bruno’s first national park visit


Crater Lake

This was Bruno‘s first visit to a national park. He was not particularly impressed though. He did find a few good sniffing spots. Crater Lake is fairly dog friendly for a national park. Dogs are allowed on pavement and even 50 feet off the paved areas. There are a few trails that allow dogs as well.


We drove up to the lodge where we got out to view the rim check out the lodge and buy a few goodies. Lots of other dogs on leashes. Bruno did really well with the other dogs. Plenty of room to keep distance which helped. He whined a little bit, but otherwise all was good.




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