We pulled into Crater Lake, and I swear it didn’t look real. The water was so blue it felt like the park service just photoshopped it in every morning before visitors arrived. If you’ve ever doubted the existence of the color blue, Crater Lake is here to smack you in the face with it.
We decided to hike along the ridge above the lake, which turned out to be breathtaking in two very different ways: 1) the scenery was jaw-dropping, and 2) the thin air and steep climbs had me wheezing like I’d just run a marathon while carrying groceries, uphill, both ways.
The view though? Unreal. The lake stretched out below like the world’s largest sapphire, and every angle looked like it belonged on a postcard. Of course, when I tried to take a picture, my phone decided to wash it out so badly it looked like a sad puddle. Honestly, you could take the best picture of your life up there and someone would still say, “Cool, is that a stock image?”
But despite the burning lungs, jelly legs, and the sneaky suspicion that Mother Nature invented uphill just to humble us, standing on that ridge with the entire lake shimmering below was pure magic.
We stayed at Diamond Lake RV Park, whose “resort” area turned out to be the off-duty lounge for smoke jumpers and Pacific Crest Trail hikers. These men and women parachute into actual wildfires or stroll across entire states, while we were over here high-fiving because we got the camper backed in on the first try. The humbling part? Standing in line for the women’s restroom with them. They looked like they’d just conquered nature itself; we looked like we’d just conquered a bag of trail mix.
Crater Lake: gorgeous, awe-inspiring, and a reminder that beauty can literally take your breath away… while you’re gasping like an asthmatic donkey.
Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.
-Winnie the Pooh
Pretty Penny Adventures 
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