 "Photo:")
Glorious cerulean water, 100 years of national park history and President George W. Bush may have something in common this summer for savvy tourists to enjoy.
Crater Lake National Park is holding a public centennial celebration from Aug. 23 to 25, and rumor has it President Bush may be coming to speak on Aug. 24, park spokesman Brad Nehring said.
For those interested in attending the celebration or just visiting Crater Lake, it's less than a day trip away, about three to three-and-a-half hours, depending on the route taken.
Visitors may attend for the lovely sightseeing or just for the chance of catching a presidential address.
However, there is another president involved in Crater Lake's history.
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill imbuing Crater Lake with national park status on May 22, 1902.
In the late 1800s, William Gladstone Steele was the driving force behind making Crater Lake a national park. Steele fought for the lake's environmental preservation after reading an article about it in a newspaper in 1870.
The National Park's history is complex, and so is its birthday.
Aug. 25 is the anniversary of the day that Congress passed the legislation creating the U.S. Park Service in 1916, park historian Steve Mark said.
This date, rather than the May 22 bill signing, is combined with the year the park was established, making the official centennial celebration Aug. 25.
On Aug. 23, the park will celebrate its birthday with a public reception at 1 p.m. at Rim Village. Entertainment includes a one-act, one-man play, and there will be a cake, park spokesman Kevin Bacher said.
"There'll be walks and talks and kids programs, lots of different things focusing on the history of the park," Bacher said.
On Aug. 24, a ranger-lead walk will show interested visitors the new exhibits in the park museum, as well as the glorious hiking sites that feed the visual senses, which is one of the Park's main draws, he said.
"The lake is unlike anything else in the world; the beauty is just extraordinary," Bacher said. "It contains some of the clearest, purist and most pristine water.
"Crater lake is blue, blue, blue," he said. "You have to put the blue in all capital letters just to capture how beautiful it is."
The lake's blue, blue existence began with the volcanic eruption of the 12,000-foot Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago, which left a hole more than five miles in diameter.
The hole, called a caldera or volcanic basin, filled with melted snowfall, creating a lake that goes down 1,943 feet at its deepest point, making it the deepest lake in the United States and the seventh deepest in the world.
To maintain the lake's beauty, no private boating is permitted, but boat rides are available at $19.25 for adults and $11.50 for children 11 years old and younger.
There are basically two ways to get to Crater Lake from Eugene.
The scenic route, which passes Diamond Lake, tacks about 20 extra minutes onto the drive. To take this route, head south toward Roseburg on Interstate 5 and take Highway 138 East to get to the park's north entrance.
A quicker way, which takes only three hours from Eugene, is to follow I-5 and turn onto the Goshen exit, which goes to Highway 58.
Visitors who arrive on Aug. 25 will get into the park for free, skipping the $10 entry fee per car. Bicycles, pedestrians and single motorists will be able to skip the usual $5 fee and commercial buses can avoid the $25 to $200 entry fee.
Call (541) 594-3100 for more information, or e-mail park officials
at CRLA_Information_Requests @nps.gov.
Contact the reporter at jilliandaley@dailyemerald.com
Be the first to comment on this article!