Crater Lake National Park; Klamath County, Oregon, USA (July 2012)
Crater Lake National Park offers many different trails to choose amongst. The Cleetwood Cove Trail leading down to the shores of Crater Lake at Cleetwood Cove would be a good option for anyone with limited time available (map). The trailhead begins right next to Rim Drive and features a large parking area. It doesn’t take too long, it’s not too strenuous and it has a nice reward at the end. All that makes it pretty much perfect.
Visitors can get to the trailhead easily once Rim Drive opens for the season, generally during the summer months. Sometimes that happens later in the year than others so confirm before arrival. We arrived during the latter part of July and the road had been opened only a week earlier due to lingering snow cover.
Cleetwood Cove falls on the northern side of Crater Lake and the trailhead can be found about four and a half miles east of where North Entrance Drive intersects with Rim Drive, or about 13 miles from Crater Lake Lodge.
Use these GPS Coordinates to get to Rim Road directly in front of the trailhead and parking lot: 42.979755,-122.083233
Hitting the Trail
The Cleetwood route descends steeply into the caldera, clinging to the slope through a series of switchbacks. However, don’t worry because the trail features a wide and well-maintained path even if a bit dusty due to powdery volcanic soil. It descends quickly from 6,900 ft to 6,176 over a distance of 1.1 mile. This equals an 11% grade. That seems like it might be pretty steep, and I won’t deny that, however the switchbacks make it more tolerable than it may sound.
Only One Option Down
The trail remains smooth and includes plenty of benches to stop and rest, and admire the amazing views of Crater Lake. It should take about a half-hour to descend and perhaps a little longer than that to complete the more strenuous uphill return. However no other path leads down to the surface of Crater Lake on foot should one ever want to experience that. We heard from one of the rangers that a trail used to descend down from Crater Lake Lodge, although apparently the Cleetwood Cove trail replaced it in the 1960’s. Absent a helicopter, you have no other option.
At Water’s Edge
There are a number of reasons why people hike down the trail to Cleetwood Cove. Some people go there to fish. The signage said that people don’t even need a fishing license. Rainbow Trout and Kokanee (a variant of Sockeye Salmon that live in freshwater lakes) commonly thrive here as introduced species. The National Park Service said, “because they are not native to the lake, fishing is not only allowed, it’s encouraged.” So anglers flock to Cleetwood Cove, the only place where they can get a line into the water.
A few brave souls come down to the lake to swim. The water on the surface warms up to only 55° or 60° in the middle of summer so it doesn’t sound particularly inviting. Nonetheless, we saw a number of people jumping into the lake and then quickly scramble back out. It seemed to be more of a dare or bragging-rights activity for teens and young adults rather than actual “swimming” per se. Either way visitors who wish to subject themselves to an extremely chilly dip in the indigo waters can do that.
Most people hike all the way down for a third purpose. The dock at Cleetwood Cove is the starting point for concession-operated boat tours around the lake. We came for that.
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