Crater Lake

Crater Lake is the first travel advice we would like to give you for the West Coast, and not without reason. When Alan and I travelled the West Coast two years ago, we also drove up to Crater Lake and were immediately - and still are - totally in awe of its beauty.
 As you can guess by its name, Crater Lake is a caldera lake. It was formed by the collapse of a volcano and the caldera was subsequently filled with rain water which explains the incredible clarity of the water. Standing on the rim, some hundered metres above the water surface, you can see all the way to the bottom of the shallow parts of the lake.
There is a road all the way around the lake (about 35 km) that lets you see the lake from different angles. Numerous vista points guarantee a myriad of photos and there are also some hiking paths so you can stretch your legs.

The water surface is well protected from the wind by the caldera's rim and the water barely moves. Accordingly, the water surface reflects everything as clearly as a mirror.
The experience when you stand on the rim of the crater is incredibly beautiful and difficult to put into words. But I am sure that you know those awe-inspiring moments when you look at a marvel of nature and you are so in awe because you know that mankind could never create anything like that.

Crater Lake is in the southern part of Oregon, just above California, at a linear distance of approximately 600 km from San Francisco. The website about.com states that the driving distance is 675 km, i.e. 7.5 hours. But don't worry - there are numerous beautiful sights on the way up from (or down to) Wine Country, so you certainly won't need to (and shouldn't!) drive the entire distance at once! We'll blog about these sights some time soon.

You will find more information about Crater Lake on:
http://www.nps.gov/pwr/crla/ (official site of the National Park Service of the Department of Interior)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake (Wikipedia in German)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake (Wikipedia in English)

Hotel advice:
Alan and I visited Crater Lake on our way down from Seattle. For the night, we drove on to Medford (about 140 km southwest of Crater Lake), where we stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites (appr. 85 USD). The motel had been built or refurbished just before and it served our purposes perfectly. We can highly recommend it.