Take a hike
o WHAT: Ranger-guided interpretive snowshoe walks at Crater Lake National Park
o WHEN: Beginning at 1 p.m. (check-in is 12:30 at the visitor center near park headquarters) weekends through April 27 and daily through Jan. 1.
o Groups: Tours may be arranged for groups of 15 or more
o Reservations: Are required by calling (541) 594-3100 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Lodging:
o Union Creek Resort:
Call (541) 560-3565 or go to unioncreekoregon.com
o Fort Klamath:
Go to bit.ly/1gGYk8K
o Diamond Lake Resort:
Call: (800) 733-7593 or go to diamondlake.net
o Klamath Falls:
Go to bit.ly/1gGYUDo
Take a hike
o WHAT: Ranger-guided interpretive snowshoe walks at Crater Lake National Park
o WHEN: Beginning at 1 p.m. (check-in is 12:30 at the visitor center near park headquarters) weekends through April 27 and daily through Jan. 1.
o Groups: Tours may be arranged for groups of 15 or more
o Reservations: Are required by calling (541) 594-3100 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Lodging:
o Union Creek Resort:
Call (541) 560-3565 or go to unioncreekoregon.com
o Fort Klamath:
Go to bit.ly/1gGYk8K
o Diamond Lake Resort:
Call: (800) 733-7593 or go to diamondlake.net
o Klamath Falls:
Go to bit.ly/1gGYUDo
Right now, the snow depth at Crater Lake is measured in inches, but if historic averages hold true, soon it will be measured in feet, then yards.
“We don’t have that much,” said Dave Grimes, a ranger at Oregon’s lone national park. “The current snow depth is only 15 inches. Normally we have 44 inches on the ground.
“But we’ve got enough for the snowshoe walks.”
Free ranger-guided interpretive snowshoe tours began last weekend and are offered at 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through April 27, with daily tours through Jan. 1. Everything, including loaner snowshoes, is provided, and even park admission is free during the winter.
“We call them moderately strenuous, so people in average physical condition shouldn’t have any trouble,” Grimes said. “We do occasionally have people turn back because they can’t make their way through the snow, but people of average fitness should be fine.
“The snowshoe walks are also a great way to experience what for many people is a new form of recreation. I’d say more than half of our participants have never snowshoed before, so it’s not something where you have to have any experience with.”
Each walk is about two hours and will cover about a mile.
“We spend about half of the time walking and about half the time talking,” Grimes said. “So it is an educational walk. And each ranger has a different program, but we all focus on some aspect of winter ecology. So a lot of us talk about how plants and animals survive here in the face of 44 feet of snow, how winter affects the lake and the park’s residents.”
People who have visited Crater Lake during the summer in sandals, T-shirt and shorts can’t believe the contrast with the winter landscape.
“It’s amazing. People who live in Ashland or Medford where it doesn’t snow, they have no idea even though it’s just an hour and a half away,” Grimes said, adding with a laugh, “they’ll show up in sneakers and blue jeans and no gloves or hats. Even people who live down in the Rogue Valley aren’t used to winter conditions.”
Because of that, after you call for reservations, Grimes will go over the guidelines for clothing such as hat, gloves or mittens, boots, dressing in layers with no cotton, windproof or waterproof jacket and, for sunny days, sunglasses and sunscreen. The minimum recommended age is 8.
Reservations are required, with a limit of 30 participants for each ranger, Grimes said.
“Most of our snowshoe walks are fully booked, that’s why people need to call … to make sure we have space available for you,” he said. “They’re very popular. Every year we have about 2,000 people participate.”
And there are a lot of repeat visitors, because no two walks are ever the same, Grimes said.
“Every walk is different depending on the weather and the ranger,” he said. “And about half the time the lake’s not visible. So when it’s warm and sunny we’ll spend more time walking along the edge of the crater and the lake itself.
“But there are some days when it’s snowing, or the clouds are too low, and the lake’s not visible, and we might spend more time walking through the forest talking about the plants and animals that live in the old-growth forests here.”
A majority of people who go on the walks are locals from Klamath Falls, Medford, Ashland and even Bend. But many from outside the area will make a snowshoe outing a stop during winter visits to the area.
“There’s no accommodations inside the park,” during the winter, Grimes said. “There are places not too far away such as Union Creek Resort, which is just outside the west entrance to the park. There’s the small town of Fort Klamath just outside the south entrance to the park.
“And then Diamond Lake Resort north of the park is open year-round. Or if they want a bigger selection of hotels and restaurants, Klamath Falls or Shady Cove down toward Medford, those are both about an hour away.”
