Oops—thanks, will fix.

…I’ve been to Crater Lake many times over the decades (since I was a teen), camping, walking, hiking, sometimes going there just to drive around the caldera.

(Northern California and southern Oregon were my stomping grounds …I’m intimate with a lot of the region.)

Crater Lake visits almost always included a visit to the relatively nearby community of Ashland to take in a play (or two) …my aunt and uncle convinced me to go with them to the Shakespeare Festival when I was visiting them as a recalcitrant brat of 16 (15?) or so (they lived on the North Coast – in Eureka – at the time, and Ashland was only a 4 hour drive or so) …and that impromptu road trip began my love of the theater (and an introduction to the joys of Shakespeare).

The play that evening was one of the comedies – As You Like It – in the Elizabethan Theater (it was pretty much the only venue in Ashland back then), and it rained a bit at one point …and we sat mid-theater under the stars as the evening deepened …and I was hooked: my gawd, it was funny and magical. It changed me. I’ll never forget.

Lassen too. There’s a small campground (I think it only has 15 campsites or so) at the south gate (on the road that winds its way to the summit …and an awesome fast downhill cycling ride), and I “taught” my wife to love camping, hiking, camp coffee on cold mornings, and the joy of Tiny Tots (small brisling sardines in olive oil) on crackers during an arduous climb, from that base.

Good times.

…reading this thread has made me quite nostalgic.

Sounds like fun.

As for the water level, apparently this is the explanation:

The last eruptions at Wizard Island took place when the lake was about 260 feet (80 m) lower than today. All of this activity occurred within 750 years after the cataclysmic eruption. The water level continued to rise until reaching near present-day levels, where it encountered a thick layer of porous deposits in the northeast caldera wall. These deposits stabilize lake levels like an overflow drain in a bathtub.

That link has a nice summary of information about Crater Lake and Mount Mazama.

BTW, you are right about the heat all around Lassen Peak in the summer. I have visited the park many times, but always on skis or snowshoes. There is often much snow around well into June. On July 5, 1983, which was a very big snow year, I climbed to the summit and then descended on skis. I also made several ski trips up the peak on Memorial Day weekends.

I know what you mean about the hot summers. I used to live in Susanville (about an hour to the east of Lassen), and going to the Sacramento Valley in midsummer was an ordeal.

One spring (1998, I think), Lassen Park had a day where they allowed a limited number of visitors to come up and watch them do snow removal on the park road in the southern part of the park, where the Tehama caldera is. A friend and I took advantage of this. We were escorted up to the working face, where there was only (!) 27 feet of snow over the road. It had been an unusually heavy snow that year, and dense as well. They were estimating that there was over 60 feet of snow at the road summit, and there was so much snow on Lassen that the profile of the mountain was changed.

AMartel:
Too bad you weren’t there yesterday – it probably would have been pretty nice. It was 86 and clear here in Portland – today was cloudy and rainy as at Crater Lake.