Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Crater Lake: This is a truly remarkable lake. The place used to be a 12,000 foot high mountain. About 7,700 years ago, it erupted, about 40 times as violent as Mt. St. Helens, and then it collapsed to the way it is today. The water appears as the deepest, richest, dye-like blue. It actually is just regular water. The lake is just so deep that by the time the light gets to the bottom and back up, all colors except the deepest blues are absorbed. How deep is the lake? It has an average depth 1,500 feet, with its deepest point being 1,932 feet deep. This makes it the deepest lake in the US, the 2nd deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere, and the 7th deepest lake in the world. Shown below is a picture taken from the Rim Village. In it, you will see Wizard Island on the left. I have never seen a picture anywhere (not even a professional picture) that shows how blue the water is. If you look at the very bottom of the picture, you will see that the water there is extremely blue. The entire lake is even more blue than this!

Wizard Island from Rim Villiage

Wizard Island

Wizard Island and its Islets from The Watchman

Crater Lake Tour Boat from The Watchman

Islets of Wizard Island from The Watchman

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