An early start today. We had a good look at Crater Lake. An amazing sight, this huge volcano crater filled with water. We drove the 33 miles around the crater, stopping at every viewpoint. That means stopping 300 times, it seems. We hiked to the pinnacles and after about 4.5 hours we were done. Crater Lake is gorgeous. And everywhere you look, the lake and the crater look different.
After lunch at the Mazama village near the park’s exit, we started our long drive back to the coast. We got there around 18:00 and wanted to find a nice little hotel in Coos Bay. Well, Coos Bay, it turns out, is an awful town. It looks like a town that’s dying: a lot of old buildings, closed down motels and restaurants, etc. There is 1 hotel/casino, run by the Coquille (pronounced as Kok-well) indians. We got a real good deal there, and checked into our very nice and very new hotel room. After dinner we watched a rock band in the hotel bar. Band was nice, audience was non-existing…. Too bad.
