Crater Lake.....Smoke On The Water....

What an amazing place. We made it to Crater Lake despite the fires, the roads apart from the West Rim were open. However we were warned by the staff that there was a lot of smoke about and the view may be obscured. They were right but I think we were lucky because we managed to view the lake...the smoke hung over it like a haze.

We also ventured down the 'Pinnacles' road to view some rock formations. After leaving Crater Lake Park we set of to go East and North heading towards Montana and the Glacier National Park. We're not there yet......the ever joyful sat nav directed us over some roads we hadn't even spotted on our maps. Oh joy miles and miles of the 'High Desert' of Oregon and hardly any petrol stations.....good job there's an extended tank on my Sportster....160 miles and didn't go onto reserve.

Anyways with nowhere to camp round here we have ended up in a motel.....probably just as well...just down the road is a 'fire camp'. Today we have seen some of the beauty of Crater Lake, some charred trees, lots of smoke, breathed in a few too many lungfuls of it or so it felt and seen helicopters parked up on full alert but we haven't seen any flames...thank goodness....lets hope they get the fires under control.....we have just met a couple in the same motel who were fighting the fires the other day to save their home. Thankfully that is safe but they have lost some of their cattle.Despite the fact that I would love some more sun I do hope it rains for them cos we're just moving on tomorrow ....they have to stay.