In October, Larkin and Finn and I made a quick mid-week trip to Crater Lake. I had only been there in passing (long ago, on the back of Emile's motorcycle) and they had never been.
On the way, we stopped at the headwaters of the Rogue River where the whole river squeezes itself through a 20 foot wide gap in the rock.
That is the closest, by far, that Finn ever got to the railing-- he was suitably impressed by the awesome force of nature. And that was before we saw the notice that someone fell in last summer and their body had never been found.
Emile wowed us when we got back with a memory from his childhood of a local kayaking celebrity making quite a splash (ha! I kill me...) when he shot the headwaters. Hard to believe.
Our next stop was at the ranger station just inside the Crater Lake monument-- although still about 9 miles from the lake itself. They had a small theater set up where they were playing an 18 minute (rather dry) film on the history and geology of the lake that the kids were very excited to watch.
We were there well after the big summer rush, and met up with a park ranger who clearly had more time on his hands than he knew what to do with. During the course of our half hour conversation, it was revealed that there was a junior ranger program which, if the kids jumped through certain worksheet hoops, could result in a junior ranger badge. This became the obsession of the trip.
From there, we went to check into our swanky room at the Crater Lake Lodge:
I mean, really, check out these views!
Before dinner, we did a short hike to several viewpoints on the rim from the lodge. At one stop I discovered just how much Larkin and Finn had actually learned from that film when they had a long conversation with a grandparents-age couple and answered many of their questions about the lake... including several things that I didn't remember from the video. This Grandpa Jim (no relation) also shared his binoculars which I had been kicking myself for not remembering.
Back to the lodge for our fancy schmancy dinner reservations, at which I was clearly (by far) the third youngest person in the room after Larkin and Finn. Our behavior was terribly proper, regarding which several grandmother-types were kind enough to complement us as we left.
After another short hike around the rim of the lake in the opposite direction, we retired to our room for Larkin and Finn's first ever experience of homework, although they didn't realize it. The park ranger had given them each a packet of 12 worksheets, and they had to complete at least 8 to receive a coveted junior ranger badge. We ended up having a lot of fun and learning more about the park, but it was the first time this unschooling adventure has included staying up until 10:30 studiously completing worksheets.
Those dang ranger packets were nearly our undoing the next day. The ranger station at the rim was closed for the season, and Finn could barely tolerate staying long enough to do my coveted longer rim hike before heading back down the mountain to the entry station and the promised badges. As it turned out, we *did* need those steenking badges.
We ended up doing a slightly shorter hike to "Discovery Point" where we were suitably affronted at the eurocentricity of the name. The volcano cone, Wizard Island, could not have been more aptly named at that point in our Harry Potter obsession.
After consulting my maps, I found another hike through a section of old growth forest further down the mountain that we could hit *after* a stop at the ranger station and were on our merry way.
It's hard to see, but here is Finn, wearing his badge and lagging behind on the hike while he discovered he could use its reflection to cast spots of sunlight all around him. This paired well with the spells he was periodically casting from his walking stick.
We just barely made it to the fish hatchery during daylight hours on our way home where Larkin and Finn were suitably impressed by the writhing mass that was the fishy feeding frenzy caused by the pellets they tossed into the tanks.
It was a nicely action-packed trip considering there was less than 4 hours total drive time. :)
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