It was a nice hike and nice getting to see Crater Lake again, even if I can't remember if there was water there last time. The weather was perfect for hiking with lots of sunshine but not too hot.

After a short drive on FR 760 I arrived at FR 9009D a little after 11am. A high clearance vehicle could probably drive 9009D but I know my rental would not have made it. 9009V is in pretty bad shape and I am not sure anything could drive up that.

This is a very short hike at only about 3 miles round trip, and the only elevation gain is for less than a half of a mile on FR 9009V as you get close to the crater. The portion of the hike along FR 9009D is pretty much flat.

At the end of 9009V there is a cattle gate and then a short trail that leads down into the crater. It was very pretty down there. There is no trail going around the lake but it is pretty easy to navigate except for one section on the west side where there are a lot of blown downs. There were some small patches of snow still lingering in a few on the shaded areas and I could not resist building a small snow hiker dude.

I was back at my car around 115pm so the hike only took a little more than 2 hours. I spent about 45 minutes in the crater and walking around the lake.

Update... I dug through some old photos and finally managed to find some from the other hike I did to Crater Lake. That one was done with my wife way back in September 2004, just a few months shy of 20 years ago. Somehow I did not think it had been that long. There was no water at all in the lake at that time.