Phantom Ship, Crater Lake

We took a boat tour of Crater Lake.  The boat went "an astonishing 13 miles and hour," which provided a nice cool breeze.  All the tickets for stopping off at Wizard Island had been sold, so we did the two hour tour of various features instead (and saved a bundle of money: those tickets aren't cheap).  

One of the  interesting features is Phantom Ship.  It's part of an old lava dike that forms a spur climbing the rim of the caldera.  I want to say it's two football fields long, but it might be only one; it's about nine stories high.  

What I liked about it was that it really did look like a ship, it had trees growing on it, and it had cool basalt formations.  Also, it's easy for a boat to get close to, so you can see finer details than most of the other geologic features of the tour.


If I were going to hide a sword that a Once-And-Future King might need to find, I would hide it on the Phantom Ship in Crater Lake.

Actually, if I were an Evil Genius and I needed to hide my secret lair, it would be at the bottom of Crater Lake, and it would be powered by one of the lake's hot spots.

I'm not sure where I'd put the monorail, though.

Crater Lake Building Details

When I visit national parks, I like to take detail shots of the buildings.  Somewhere deep inside, I want to duplicate what I see and install it where I live.  

These are details of curtains hanging in the Crater Lake Lodge.  Mark thinks the lodge is too much like a bar, and prefers the lodge at Yellowstone, which is more lodge-like.  I will admit that the Crater Lake Lodge has a slicker, smooth, and intentionally distressed look to it - which comes from extensive remodeling and refurbishing.  The Crater Lake Lodge is more open and restful.  

I like the pattern of these curtains because they look like the local desert paintbrush flowers which grow on the slopes of Crater Lake.  I like the orthagonal geometry of the design.  I mostly like the colors, and I can't decide if I'd replace the purple stems with green ones, or if that would be too Christmasy and pedestrian.



These door pulls are attractive and sturdy; I've always liked door latches like these.  It's the Visitor Information building at the Crater Lake headquarters.  I like the arrowhead, which is the National Park Service logo; but you don't need to know in order to enjoy looking at.  

Crater Lake Flora and Fauna

When we first got to the north entrance of Crater Lake, we drove past the hordes of folks who had stopped at the first rim-side overlook and drove to the much less crowed second overlook.

I'm so used to the cedars, hemlocks, and firs that I forget that wildflowers grow on the rim.  Where the ground is mostly pumice, sand and gravel, the plants' leaves are more succulent and waxy.  Since we were there at the beginning of August, there were only a few small patches of snow on the ground, mostly in the shade of the southern rim.  Snow is on the ground about ten months out of the year.

I think this purple flower is a lupine.  




Dragonflies like Crater Lake, I think I must have seen something like fifty of them while we visited.  I only got close enough to photograph one, and managed to get a few shots of it from the above and the front.




In the early evening, we took a hike on the Vidae Falls Trail.  We didn't get to the falls, but we did get within about ten feet of a deer.  The pleasant shade was refreshing, although nearby forest fires made the sunlight ruddy.



A fallen tree caught my eye because of the way the remaining snag twirled in a corkscrew.  I always think of a tree's bark going straight up, but I guess it wraps around the tree.  




The next day on the Cleetwood Cove trail, we saw about ten, if not Very Tame Chipmunks, then at least Ones Wildly Unconcerned About Humans and Conditioned to Investigate Crinkling Plastic Bags.

More Typeface Examples

I thought when I took a picture of the Administration Building that the sign on it was larger.  I was more interested in the architectural lines than the typeface, apparently.

[UPDATE:  After Googling around, I found more font examples on the signs for the Science Center and for the North and East Entrances of the Park.  I looked around the Department of the Interior's website, but this particular typeface isn't coming up.]

Visitor Center Mystery Typeface

Sunday during our trip to Crater Lake, we stopped at a visitor information site.  I liked the architecture there; it was designed to handle the ten months of snow which lingers at the high elevation of the lake.    



Of course, I had to take a close-up of one of the signs because I really liked the typeface.  The serifs make the signs easier to read, and the drop-down stems on the R's, the M's and the N's make this type face feel like a more laid-back copperplate.

Curious, I visited the National Park Service's typeface page:  http://www.nps.gov/hfc/services/identity/typefaces.cfm, but neither typeface listed there is what this sign is using.  It's not a part of their signage page, either.

Looks like a mystery to solve!

Crater Lake Dragonfly

We're back from Crater Lake.  It was nice and cool, if a little smokey from forest fires.   I'm going through pictures, and this is one.

More later.