With Matt and Kimberly at Crater Lake over the 4th of July

 We had a great day hanging out with Matt & Kimberly enjoying the rim drive around Crater Lake. We stopped at the Lodge (built circa 1915) to wander through the great room out to the deck, lined with old rocking chairs, where we enjoyed our first view of the lake.
Even in the hot dry weather, the meadows were full of color from the wildflowers in bloom, and the stops we made to see the lake from many vantage points netted us several hundred photos.
We took a short hike out to the pinnacles to see the fantastic shapes of towers of hardened ash. After the largest volcano in North American history erupted, the ash settled and hardened in air vents from the magma flows and created surreal views, some of which looked like castles clinging to the nearly vertical hillside.
We finished up our tour with visits to Vidae Falls, with thousands of wildflower blooms that flourished in the spray from the falls, and to Annie Springs, where we re-filled all our water bottles with the freshest, purest, coldest water in the mountains.
"Home" again to the RV park, we celebrated the 4th quietly, watching fireworks in the distance as we watched the embers dance in our campfire, the last of our long journey.