Cleetwood Cove Trail (Crater Lake NP)

One of the highlights of our Crater Lake visit was to do the Wizard Island Boat Tour they offer. This entailed a 2-hour tour of the lake itself and then 3 hours on Wizard Island for further exploring and hiking. We had scored tickets for the 9:45am tour and we made our way over to the parking and trailhead. We were disappointed that morning that we woke up to white-out conditions around the lake. At first we were just worried about the views. We didn't exactly consider the worst that could happen. Sure enough, when we arrived at the parking we went up to the ticket booth to check-in for our tour, as many others were doing, and we were told the morning tours were cancelled due to the weather. It was surprising. We had held hope things would clear up but apparently this is how they operate.

I was left with big disappointment and a rush to make decisions. It felt like a consolation would be to at least hike the Cleetwood Cove trail while we were present. I did at least want to see the lake shore and what it would look like inside the Crater. I also felt it would be fun to touch the water. So I gathered the pack I had prepared for the boat tour and lightened my load just a bit and I set out on the trail. My wife was still in the car as my ride for the morning, she graciously offered to stay and wait at the car.

I was surprised to find the trail well groomed and a track tread running down it. It looked as if they ran some kind of small tractor or ATV with a wagon to haul supplies up and down the trail so they kept it in great condition. I decided to do a bit of a trail run on the descent and lightly ran most of it moving through the various switchbacks. Nearing the bottom there was a sign for a rockfall area and it was a reminder on such a steep wall of the crater this was a possibility at any time.

I reached the bottom in 13 minutes and made my way to the shore to touch the water. There were several workers from the boat concessionaire down there presumably monitoring the situation and preparing the boats in case they would go out today. I spent a few minutes checking things out and then decided to start my hike up.

Its funny, when disappointment is so great you go through a bit of denial and I was holding out a hope that they would change plans and still decide to hold the tour. This feeling was so strong I really pushed the ascent back to the top just to see if things had changed. I also didn't want to keep my wife waiting forever. I hiked the whole ascent but I kept the pace moving and only slowed once. I ran into several other parties descending and I finally asked one of them if they were just hiking for fun, or if a tour had been reinstated. Definitely denial. Unfortunately they were all hiking for fun as I was. I made the ascent in 20 minutes.

It appears another visit to Crater Lake will be in my family's future as I really still want to get that tour out to Wizard Island and hike to its caldera summit. Some day.

Trip Info:
.Cleetwood Cove Trail
Trailhead Elevation: 6,791 ft.

Lake Elevation: 6,211 ft.
Distance: 1.99 mi. 
Elevation Gain: 642 ft.
Start Time: 8:18am
End Time: 8:54am

Trip Report:

First 15 feet of the trail

You can see the treads from whatever wagon-hauler
they used to move supplies up/down the trail

First sight of the dock, also a sign for a
rockfall area, keep moving.

Beautiful at lakeside, sun is at least
thinking of coming out.

Looking back up the slope of the Crater.

Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.