3:00 snapshot #772: Vacation recap #5

[urbpan]

What's so damn funny?




Oh, a father and son snowball fight! In July!
Let me back up a minute.


We were headed southeast when noticed snow in the distance.


As we climbed in elevation, we found more and more snow!
I pulled the car over and we took several pictures of snow.
After all it had been three whole months. since I'd seen any.


I know it seems strange, since I spend all winter complaining about snow, but what could be more awesome than snow in July?


Oh.

Yes, well, we were deliberately heading for Crater Lake, and while the snow was distracting, the lake was flabbergasting.
It is difficult to capture the experience of rising a great height and then looking down into this great beauty.
Sorry for the awkward stitched panorama, but we didn't have a complete unobscured view.
You know who had a better view?


These maniacs.


This guy probably had a pretty good view, too.


This is a close up of the edge of Wizard Island, to show the colors in the water.
Wizard island is a cone of cinder left over when the original volcano "collapsed," by which I assume they mean "blew to smithereens."




There is a visitor's center, which also has snow.


And is where I found the first fresh mushrooms on the trip.