Crater Lake National Park

Today our journey took us from Grandpa’s house in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Crater Lake National Park, a mere 75ish miles away. It was a special day for all of us. We were so blessed by grandpa Don DeSelle's generosity as tour guide and host. And it was fun to have the kids asking someone else how long it would take to "get there." 

This is my first time to truly explore Oregon, and I must say that I find it a refreshing, uncrowded and elegantly ornamented state. While less lush than the northern coast of California, the Klamath region is fascinating for its volcanic features, rolling pine covered hills and open verdent valleys filled with livestock and delapidated barns weathered by years of harsh winters.

Our journey took us to the rim area of Crater Lake, where we took a short hike, refreshed ourselves at the lodge, then went back out for another short hike and then back to the lodge for a leisurely dinner overlooking the deepest of blues one can imagine.

From the rim of Crater Lake, one can see the whole Klamath Valley and Klamath Lake area to the south while also viewing the stunning waters of Crater Lake itself.

Everthing is more colorful here, with forest green set against volcanic black or grey painted against a canvas of cobalt blue.

Let some praise nature for such a place, and worship the place itself. Let others praise themselves for being clever enough to identify it as nothing more than a chance volcanic occurrence in nature. I will praise the creative genious who made it, both for its peculiar beauty and for making human beings with a capacity for aesthetic enjoyment of the awe inspiring scenery. I believe God built us for such places.

Pictures and words fail at an approximation

It is the seventh deepest lake in the world at 1949 feet

The girls decided this was Theodore of the Alvin and the Chipmunks Gang

Grandpa Don, Dad and the Munchkins

Shot taken to capture the clarity of the water, the purest in the country

The girls hearing about the volcanic history of the region

Felicity loves to hike

Felicity loves to pose

At the lodge for a lovely meal

Trinity took this shot in our little photo competition game

I liked the light contrasts on this one

Don inspecting a tree that was struck by lightening

My summer crew

Sequoia and King's Canyon

We are blessed to live close to two spectacular national parks. For father's day I requested that we stay for one night in Fresno and then drive up highway 180 into King's Canyon National Park, and then down the road to Sequoia National Park. This trip became a kind of preview of the grand national parks road trip that I am chronicling here.

In these two majestic parks, one finds the mighty Sequoia trees. One of the joys of parenthood is that you are presented with the honor of showing your children the world, of introducing them to wonders they have never seen, and could not have imagined. 

Dimensions of General Grant

There are encounters in this world that make us feel small. They make us feel that way because we tend to measure our lives in terms of years (or at least accomplishments that outlive us) and grandeur (how "large" we can make our lives). What about a living thing that outlives us by 2000 or more years and whose physical stature is so impressive that it ranks as the world largest living thing? Here is a tree that was around before America, and before Christianity. Here is something taller than a 25 story building. Here is something that evokes the elusive virtue of true humility. In the presence of "General Sherman," we understand what Sergeant Joyce Kilmer said in his famous poem, "Poems are made by fools like me; but only God can make a tree." We can build buildings that soar far beyond 25 stories, but they aren't alive! Their glory compared to this tree is like the glory of a candle to that of the sun. 

I hope that you will take in the acute joy of witnessing the eyes of a child at first beholding something so immense, so real, so simply breathtaking, as General Sherman. When you do, you get to see the beauty of the world with fresh eyes. 

General Grant, The Third Largest Living Thing on Planet Earth

General Sherman and Me and My Girls
275 ft. tall,  103 ft. circumference,  37 ft. diameter

Me and My Girls, National Parks, II

Last year I was able to take my girls on a trip to two glorious national parks: Zion and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have a strong desire to teach them the beauty of nature, to build memories of childhood that center around lovely, noble and true things. We all feel a certain native curiosity in childhood, and while we rambled about in Zion last year, they demonstrated the kind of wonder one feels when everything seems new and possible. They even enjoyed (endured) a 2 mile hike with daddy (and I only carried the twins part of the way).

Daddy Showing Felicity the Beauty of the Natural World

This year my plan is quite ambitious: 6 national parks, and possibly 7 (if we have time and money for Bryce Canyon). We already visited Sequoia and King's Canyon (post to follow this one), but will venture far north and west in our pursuit of beauty. We begin our trip going north out of Bakersfield to San Jose for a short stay with grandma and grandpa. From there, we will continue north, this time on highway 101 over the Golden Gate and up to Eureka, CA. We stay for a little while there and then spend some time in our first national park: Redwood National Park, where reside the tallest living things on planet earth. 

After our time in the Redwoods, we meander our way through the coast mountains into southern Oregon to visit with Nancy's dad in Klamath Falls. We will venture with him to Crater Lake National Park, where we will discover the deepest and purest water in the US. 

Then we travel to Billings, MT, where we pick up mamma and head south to Yellowstone. There we plan to stay a few days and see the many sights. 

Our last night in Wyoming will be spent in Jackson Hole, after which we plan to see Grand Teton National Park before heading south for home. 

I plan to upload pictures here to my blog of the journey and our memories of each day, along with a pithy and even perhaps mildly poetic description of the scenes we beheld that day. Stay tuned.