There’s no swimming here. And only boat at a time is allowed on the lake. But man, the view is something. At a little under 2000′ deep, Crater Lake is the ninth deepest lake in the world. Really it is a completely flooded dormant (we hope) volcano. It blew its top off and rain filled in the spaces. That is probably an overly simple way to put it but we never claimed to be geologists. In late July 2011 we visited this marvel and half the crater was closed to traffic due to snow. The last of the icebergs had melted in the lake and the first boat tour of the season was the next day (usually they begin in mid-June). The three of us threw snowballs at each other at each overlook and made a half-hearted ascent up a mountain to get a better view of the lake. Corey and I had been to this spot before and we had taken the boat tour. This time though, with half the park closed and more of the trip behind us than ahead, it felt pretty good sharing it with Henna. Even if we only stayed for a few hours.
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Hennacornoeli Days 
Isn’t it amazing? We were there in July 2010–and had the same experience, except for that it hailed on us for 10 minutes in addition to the snow. Oh yeah–did I mention mosquitos as big as humming birds? Thanks for the reminder of a really great trip.
Suzanne
I guess 2 winters ago was a doozy for the western mountains with the snow melt much delay. The whole summer we were getting to places the first day such and such road was open, etc. Lots and lots of snow everywhere.
Crater Lake is AMAZING! I have a picture I took of Wizard Island on my living room wall along with Half Dome in Yosemite and Burney Falls in Shasta County. Great Photos – Happy Monday!
Thanks for the comment. Have you ever been to Mineral King in Sequoa? I was looking up information and it looked pretty cool.