Crater Lake National Park!
We left Napa bright and early like we planned. It was hard leaving the beautiful Napa Valley but we were eager to cross into Oregon since that would be a new state for both Haley and me. On our way out of California, however, we had the pleasure of driving around Mount Shasta. When Nance was little, she and her family used to rent a houseboat for a few weeks in the summer there. They would tow the ski boat behind the house and just drop anchor whenever they felt like water skiing! If blogs existed when she was my age y'all would be much more interested in hers, she had such a fun and exciting childhood!! For us we just stopped at the observation view point for a few quick selfies, yes we were those tacky people with the selfie stick! Honestly between my GoPro, her giant Cannon camera, my big Nikon, our cell phones, and Bessie her shitty but cute Polaroid camera that her parents had gotten her for graduation, we had our hands full in the camera department. We quickly decided that we would not be able to bring ALL of these cameras along on our hikes over the next few weeks. But I digress, Mount Shasta was beautiful! The top was covered with snow that looked pristine and untouched by man. There was a large beautiful bird that kept flying around the top as we were taking pictures, it was almost as if he was posing for us! He was too far for us to be able to identify though, we should pick up some binoculars for the rest of the trip, but he made for some great pictures!
When we felt we had taken enough pictures we set off again. We ended up making one more unplanned stop just before getting to the California/Oregon border...did y'all know there was a town called Weed, California?! Because we certainly did not! Naturally we had to stop and check out the gift shop, I mean how could you not! Contrary to what you might think they do not sell weed in Weed, California..well at least not that we saw from our brief 10 minute visit to the gift shop. We got a bunch of post cards and stickers and such for all of our 420 loving friends. According to their "Welcome to Weed" sign, it used to be an old lumber town. Now it seems to be a tourist stop with this gift shop being their only attraction, it was still a fun stop though!
FINALLY we made it to the border! The sign was actually really pretty, and as I'm sure you can imagine we had quite the photo shoot right there on the side of the highway. I lost count at the amount of honks and catcalls we received. It's so nice having Haley on this trip because she's just as crazy about pictures as I am so there will definitely not be a shortage of photos from this trip! Eventually we got back in Penny and headed for Crater Lake. Driving through Oregon was gorgeous, we hadn't even made it to the park yet and I was already in love with this state! The scenery was beautiful and the wildlife was abundant. We even saw a bald eagle which was really cool, we were so in awe that surprisingly neither of us managed to get a picture! Shocking I know!!
Well we eventually made it to Crater Lake National Park and holy crap! I really think it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in real life! I mean these pictures hardly do it justice. There was snow in all the right places so the contrast in colors with the dark blue water, light blue sky, green trees, and white snow just made the whole place look unreal. As we were driving through the park the lake itself was hidden behind a wall of beautiful trees. We saw a slight break in the trees at one point so we pulled off to explore. I was shocked by all the snow that was still on the ground, in fact we were unable to camp because the campsites weren't open yet due to all the snow. Here we are in our cute little Lulu Lemon workout tanks and cropped yoga pants trekking through knee deep snow...clearly we weren't very prepared for this! Thankfully in most places the snow was solid enough to walk on and with the sun shining bright it really wasn't that cold. While I was distracted taking pictures Haley explored a bit and found an even better vantage point...right on the edge of the cliff. One wrong move and we'd get to see just how cold that water was, if we survived the fall that is! Thankfully we managed to get our pictures and enjoy the view without any casualties. It was really a shame that we couldn't camp though because I was definitely not ready to leave this view! I wanted to string up my hammock and take in the scenery till night fall. I can absolutely guarantee I'll be coming back here though that's for sure! Below are a few of our many pictures, including some impromptu yoga at the entrance sign, Haley catching me mid selfie (I have no shame), Penny surrounded by snow (she deserves a cameo since lets be real this trip would not be happening if it wasn't for her!), oh ya and that absolutely GORGEOUS lake!! Next stop Portland!!
