Crater Lake National Park: Ultimate 2-Day Itinerary
The only national park in Oregon, Crater Lake National Park consists of the namesake Crater Lake and its surrounding areas. Crater Lake formed around 7,700 years ago when the volcano Mt. Mazama erupted in the largest eruption known in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the past million years. The force of it left a gaping hole (the technical term is caldera) so deep that Crater Lake (at 1,949 ft/ 594 m) is the deepest lake in the United States. At the west end of the lake stands Wizard Island, a cinder cone volcano that you can take a ferry to and hike on.
Since no water source goes in or comes out of the lake, water from the lake is filled entirely from precipitation or melted snow, and stays so clean that you can drink directly out of it (although the park does not recommend that if you don’t want to drink gunk from swimmers; yes, you can swim in the lake and it’s awesome — more below).
Quick overall thoughts
Cleetwood Cove Trail is the only legal way down to the lake, and it’s open mid-June to October. If you’re visiting during those months, definitely do it and swim in the lake. The water is amazingly clear and so, so refreshing with the sun on your back. This was probably my favorite part of the trip.
For those (like us) who like long day hikes, Crater Lake does not have too many long hikes (the longest one we did, Mount Scott Trail, capped out at 4.2 miles). But, we found that each major trail around the lake provided a different perspective of the lake, and together they still added up to around 12 miles.
It is possible to see much of the park (i.e. go around the rim loop and hike/see the major highlights) in one day, provided that you get an early start and are ready to hike 12 miles.
Itinerary
(2 days account for the estimated total amount of time that we spent in and around Crater Lake)
Day 2 map
Day 1
- Travel to Crater Lake
- Discovery Point Trail (2.4 mi, 337 ft e.v*, 1 hour)
- Dinner and camp
Day 2
- Watchman Peak Trail (1.7 mi, 400 ft e.v., 30 min)
- Garfield Peak Trail (3.4 mi, 1069 ft e.v., 1.5 hours)
- Lunch at Rim Village
- Pinnacles Trail (0.8 mi, 42 ft e.v., 20 min)
- Mount Scott Trail (4.2 mi, 1,259 ft e.v., 2 hours)
- Cleetwood Cove Trail (2.0 mi, 620 ft e.v, 40 min; longer if you want to swim)
- Dinner and camp
Day 3
- Go on a run along Diamond Lake
- Travel home
*e.v. stands for elevation gain; mileage and e.v. data from AllTrails; time estimate is from us.
Where to camp
We camped at Broken Arrow Campground on Diamond Lake, which is part of Umpqua National Forest and about 20 minutes from Crater Lake. At $16/night, it’s on the cheaper side (which generally is the case for national forests compared to national parks), and it had everything we needed (and more!) for a campsite. Here are some things that one would generally care about for a campsite:
HOT SHOWERS!!! The showers were as clean as could be expected for a campsite and shared among all campers and works on five-minute sessions. The water pressure was great too. Showers got a bit busy in peak shower times (morning and evening), but being able to shower after a day of hiking makes a huge difference.
Bathrooms had flush toilets and automatic lights (no fumbling with a headlamp in the dark!)
Spacious lots.
This is a large campsite (200+ lots), so it might get a bit busy, and it took us a bit to find our lot.
Day 1
8 am - 5 pm: Traveling to Crater Lake
Given that it was a 7-hour drive from our home in the San Francisco Bay Area, most of the first day was spent traveling. We left at around 8am and stopped at Redding, CA (3.5 hour each way) for lunch at Final Draft Brewing Company, which I highly recommend and has one of the best Cobb salads I’ve ever had.
5 pm - 6 pm: Hike Discovery Point Trail
We got to the south entrance of Crater Lake around 5pm, and I swear I teared up a bit when the road cleared and I got a first view of the lake. I read somewhere while planning for the trip that the first time you see the lake is an awe-inspiring moment, and even after reading that, it was still more magnificent than I thought.
We did a quick hike at Discovery Point Trail (2.4 mi, 337 ft e.v, 1 hour), which is towards the southern part of the lake. The hike follows the rim, so it was a great first hike to do to get amazing views from the lake through the entire hike.
After the hike, we decided to set up camp and go to sleep a bit earlier to prepare for the longer day ahead.
Day 2
9 am - 10 am: Hike Watchman Peak Trail
Given the short amount of time we have in the park (a 3-day weekend can only do so much after accounting for traveling time), we decided to hit all the major highlights and trails of the park in the second day. But thankfully, Rim Drive made it easier. Rim Drive is the major scenic drive of the park, and as the name suggests, it basically loops the rim of the lake. We did the loop counter-clockwise, which we thought it’d be best to leave swimming in the lake towards the end to cool off (and right we were, but more on that later).
The first hike we did was Watchman Peak Trail (1.7 mi, 400 ft e.v., 30 min), one of the most popular trails in the Park. It’s a relatively short and pain-free climb to a watch tower that has a platform for a panoramic view of the lake, along with a couple of pointer plaques marking major landmarks in the distance. The peak lies directly on top of Wizard Island, providing the most clear and distinct view of the island out of all the hikes in the park (it’s little wonder why this is one of the most popular trails).
10 am - 1 pm: Hike Garfield Peak Trail and lunch
Next, we headed to Rim Village to hike Garfield Peak Trail (3.4 mi, 1069 ft e.v., 1.5 hours), whose trailhead is just off the parking lot of Crater Lake Lodge at Rim Village. From the peak, we got to see Wizard Island from a different angle, and the hike itself follows the rim so had consistently good views throughout.
We were pretty hungry after the hike, so we had lunch at the gift shop cafe at Rim Village. The food was unremarkable and overpriced (as expected of a gift shop cafe). Mazama Village (7 miles south of RIm Village) has a restaurant (Annie Creek Restaurant), but we didn’t want to make the detour given that we were already on a pretty tight schedule. There’s also a restaurant in Crater Lake Lodge that is apparently decently priced but we didn’t know about it at the time.
1 pm - 3 pm: Sightseeing along Rim Drive
After lunch, we started back on Rim Drive for the longest stretch of the drive before our next hike. We stopped at various sights and viewpoints along the way:
Phantom Ship
Pumice Castle
Pinnacles: this requires a 30-minute detour off Rim Drive, but this was so different it was worth it. These volcanic pumice spires were formed through erosion.
3 pm - 5 pm: Hike Mount Scott Trail
Next, we headed to hike up Mount Scott (4.2 mi, 1,259 ft e.v., 2 hours), the highest peak of the Park and also a . It was the longest hike and the hike with the highest elevation gain, but overall very doable. The hike takes you zig-zagging up the side of the mountain, and along the way you can feel the vegetation thin out even though the elevation change isn’t too much. Towards the peak, you walk the ridge for a little so you get to see the entire Crater Lake to your left, and an expanse of marshes (Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge) to your right.
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm: Cleetwood Cove Trail
We left this trail for last, and boy was that the right decision. Cleetwood Cove Trail (2.0 mi, 620 ft e.v, 40 min) is the only legal way to hike down to the lake, and it’s only open from mid-June to October. Because of this, this hike tends to get busy, but it is SO worth it. The hike is a relatively steep descent down to the lake, which means the ascent is also relatively steep. This was the only hike where there were rangers at the entrance to caution visitors of the 1-mile steep ascent back and to remind visitors to bring adequate water.
At the lake level, most people were congregated around the areas where the trail ends, but we decided venture in a bit more to find a less crowded spot. We did a little bit of rock scrambling to reach a small alcove on the other side of some rocks, and perched there for most of the time we were there.
The water was AMAZING. It was a bit cold but totally swimmable, and it was the clearest lake water I have ever seen, with very little algae on the rocks. The turquoise color near the shore transitioned to a deep blue the farther in.
We spent about an hour there, which was much longer than we intended. At some point, one of the people there with us started diving off the large rock next to us, which started a chain of people diving. After a day of hiking, I was so content chatting with everyone in our alcove, splashing around in the beautiful water, and cheering the divers on.
We headed back to the camp after that and (after a shower!), slept contentedly for the night.
Day 3
10 am - 11 am: 5-mile run along Diamond Lake
As we covered all places we wanted to check out at Crater Lake the day before, we wanted to explore the Diamond Lake area a bit before we started heading back home. So we decided to go for a run along the paved Diamond Lake Loop Trail. The entire loop is about 10 miles, but we didn’t have time to cover the whole loop, so we ran the 2.5 miles one way from near our campground north and back. The path we took took us through another major campsite (Diamond Lake Campground) with only some parts next to the lake (and most parts next to the lake had swarms of small flies), so overall we didn’t get too many lake views.
12pm: Head home, with a stop in Medford, OR for lunch
We started heading home after a shower at our campground, stopping by in Common Block Brewing Co. in Medford for lunch, a beer, and some chilling.
And that was the end of our trip. Thanks for reading, and I hope this was helpful for your own Crater Lake adventure!
