Going west - Never seen a blue so blue - pt7.

One thing I must say is that I have never seen so many pine trees in my life. We are in Oregon for sure!
Another thing I must say: we saw snow! And it's JULY!!!
Around 15 degrees outside and we were going up and up and up. Climbing up to the rim of Crater Lake!

Picture-picture-picture!!!!

It is one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been to! we stopped at a lookout point and there was a LOT of snow. That little splash there is right at the edge of the cliff, that is so deep that you'd think people would stay off as far as they could, but no, the story of the day was that a couple stood right there, where the picture is most beautiful and guess what? -the snow broke off the edge and they are no more.

Enough of the sad stories, let's see more pictures!

At a certain point the sun came out...and what was already amazing turned into something beyond imagination! Never seen a blue so blue, and green so green - there where the water was less deep.

The colour is given by the lake's depth - all colours of the spectrum are absorbed apart from blue that is reflected back to the surface. In the more shallow parts of the lake we can also see green, following the same principle! (see? you can learn so much by going on trips! even physics and brainy stuff!)

The lake was made when a volcano exploded and collapsed onto itself  That eruption was 42 times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen. Well, after many years of lava the bottom was sealed off and that allowed the snow to gather and eventually form a lake. (it's almost 2000 feet deep). The water is one of the purest on earth and because it has no rivers running in there were no kinds of fish until someone thought it would be cool to bring some in. Now they've stopped it and so that's all the facts I can remember!

We set off south and at a certain point I heard: over those mountains is California, and I thought: the promised land.

We went to see an old friend of ours in Ashland. We knew her when we lived in Sacramento and we had not seen each other since then, 13 years (or so).

Ashland is a pretty little town, will find a pretty pic to post, will do soon! It's a pretty cultural town, they have the shakespeare fest there. So there were about 4 diff theaters around one square! Have seen something like that only in Italy, and instead of the theaters there were churches. There you have the diff in cultures!

People in this town looked really happy, relaxed and at home. I think that's how one should always feel, don't you? There were antique shops, a hat shop, a record shop...and ice cream! Everything one should wish for.

We slept in Oregon for the last time. Tomorrow we are reaching our land. And we miss it!