Park Number: 22/63

First Visited: May 18, 2011

I’m not much of a lake person—not much of a water person, for that matter—but this caldera has some remarkable features: it’s the deepest lake in the country, the seventh deepest lake on the planet, and may be the cleanest large body of water on earth. That’s pretty damn cool.

There is a semi-strenuous trail on the north side of the rim that takes you down to the water. It’s worth dipping your feet in. And if you’re really ambitious you can take a boat out to the iconic Wizard Island.

Crater Lake was the fifth national park introduced into the system in 1902. It’s the only national park in Oregon.

Crater Lake is ancestral lands to the Makalak, Umpqua, and Klamath Tribes.