4A ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018 ❚ APPEAL TRIBUNE
Life in the Valley
Crater Lake is seen from Watchman’s lookout tower, a “kind of difficult” snowshoe and Nordic ski route. PHOTOS BY WILLIAM SULLIVAN/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
SEEKING SNOW
Find winter, and snow, at Crater Lake,
with a base camp at Medford resort
William L. Sullivan
Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
As our winters get warmer, the trick
for pursuing snow sports is to go where
the snow is. In Oregon, that’s Crater
Lake, with a current annual average of
35 feet.
To be sure, snowpacks have been
steadily declining even at Oregon’s na-
tional park, according to careful ranger
records. The annual average in the
1940s was 52 feet. This dropped to 41
feet throughout the 1970s and 38 feet in
the 2010s.
Still, the current level is the equiva-
lent of more than an inch of snow falling
every day of the year.
Spectacular snowshoe and Nordic
ski routes at Crater Lake lead to Discov-
ery Point (easy), the Watchman’s look-
out tower (kind of difficult) and 31 miles
around the entire caldera rim (seriously
difficult).
No equipment? No problem. You can
rent snowshoes inexpensively at the
gift shop or use them free on ranger-
guided walks that leave Rim Village on
weekends at 1 p.m.
Even when other mountain passes
are bare, you still can expect a 5-foot
wall of snow around the Rim Village
parking lot, the lake rim’s only plowed
access.
Climb that bank, and you’re face to
face with the most famous, seldom vis-
ited winter scenery in the state — a star-
tlingly blue inland sea ringed with snow
cliffs. Wizard Island, the sorcerer’s cone
inside this magic missing mountain,
switches hats in winter from black to
white.
Incredibly, most Oregonians have
never seen Crater Lake in the snow.
Even on a sunny winter weekend, half of
the 30 or so cars at Rim Village are from
California. The only crowd is a daily
busload of Chinese tourists who slip
and totter 40 feet through the snow to
take selfies at the rim’s warning sign,
“Danger! Keep Back!”
Perhaps you’re worried that the na-
tional park has upped its entry fee from
$10 a car to $15. Next summer, the rate
will almost certainly climb to $20, and
there have been threats that it could
zoom as high as $70.
Not to worry. In winter, the rate is still
$10, and it’s essentially by donation.
The entry fee booth is boarded up, with
a note suggesting that visitors detour to
park headquarters and offer to pay
there.
Because the park’s north entrance
road is closed in winter, visitors from
the Willamette Valley have to take a cir-
cuitous detour to the south entrance.
It’s a four-hour drive from Salem.
The quickest route is to take Inter-
state 5 exit 188a just south of Eugene
and follow Willamette Highway 58
across Willamette Pass. Turn south on
Highway 97 past Chemult 11 miles, and
turn right on Highway 238 toward Dia-
mond Lake 18 miles.
Immediately before reaching Dia-
mond Lake, turn left on Highway 230 to-
ward Medford for 25 miles. Just before
the old-timey resort of Union Creek,
turn left on Highway 62 for 18 miles to
the south entrance road on the left.
Then it’s 3.8 miles to park headquarters
and another 2.6 up to the end of the
plowed road at Rim Village.
The gift shop and café at Rim Village
are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but every-
thing else, including the lodge, is
boarded up tight.
Put on your skis or snowshoes and
head left along the rim. Because Crater
Lake has so many snowstorms, the lake
itself is visible only about half the time
in winter. If it’s clear, you’ll be stopping
for photos every few feet. Just don’t ig-
nore the warning signs and venture too
near the cliff edge. The snow can give
way, and if you slip, there’s no return.
The summertime trail toward Watch-
man Peak follows the rim closely, but in
winter, the only ski trail is the snowed-
under road, which veers away from the
rim four times in 3 miles. The first time it
returns to a viewpoint is at Discovery
Point, after 1.2 miles. This is an easy
turnaround point.
It’s thought that Discovery Point was
where pioneers first saw the lake in 1853.
Native tribes considered the volcanic
caldera taboo and hadn’t told newcom-
ers about it.
After another 1.3 miles on the road —
and two more detours away from the rim
— you’ll reach a sign for the Lightning
Springs Trail. The lake viewpoint here is
the Wizard Island Overlook, another
good turnaround point.
If you’re scaling the Watchman, keep
going on the road uphill, away from the
lake, past cliffs for 0.8 mile. When the
road levels out at a meadow opening,
turn right through a snowfield. Head
uphill 0.6 mile through increasingly
steep, wind-gnarled pine woods to a
The Watchman lookout is seen at Crater Lake. Snowshoers and skiers can trek to
the tower on a “kind of difficult” trail.
two-story lookout building. The stone
patio here seems to overhang the lake
and Wizard Island.
Most rangers agree that this is the
best viewpoint of the lake. In winter, it’s
breathtaking.
Because of the long drive to Crater
Lake, a trip here really ought to include
an overnight stay. But where? In winter,
the only overnight option in the park it-
self is snow camping.
Tenting in the snow can be fun if you
are equipped and experienced. It’s es-
sential if you intend to trek all the way
around the lake — usually a three-day
trip.
About 120 people a year attempt to
ski or snowshoe around Crater Lake in
winter on the snowed-over Rim Drive.
About half are turned back by storms.
All snow campers must get a free per-
mit at park headquarters, in person,
during business hours, so rangers can
check gear and read warnings about av-
alanches.
If snow camping isn’t your thing,
head for the Union Creek Resort, 26
miles toward Medford. In winter, it’s the
closest place to Crater Lake that offers
actual beds and showers.
Opened in 1922, this funky outpost in
the woods has been visited by Zane
Grey, Jack London and Herbert Hoover.
Because it’s on the national historic reg-
ister, it looks much as it did in the olden
days.
The Union Creek Lodge has a general
store, a fireplace lounge and nine nice
rooms (with shared bathrooms) that
rent for a reasonable $78 to $89.
Beckie’s Café, across the street,
opens every day at 8 a.m. It’s named for
Ed Beckleheimer, whose wife, Cassie,
became legendary for her huckleberry
Skiers pass Hilman Peak in the Rim
Village. Free ranger-guided walks with
equipment provided leave Rim Village
on weekends at 1 p.m.
pies.
Most of the resort’s 23 rental cabins
date to the 1920s or were built by the Ci-
vilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
They cost $119 to $245 and are extremely
rustic, with log furniture and tiny bath-
rooms. They’re loads of fun if you’re in
the mood. Only Cabin 21 overlooks
Union Creek’s whitewater.
The resort is at a low enough eleva-
tion that it’s often snow-free in winter.
After trying out the snow at the national
park, you can round out your day with a
short hike at Union Creek. Trails from
the lodge lead up Union Creek a mile to a
bridge or up the Rogue River half a mile
to a gorge where the river churns edge-
wise though a deep, mossy slot.
Snow is getting scarcer in Oregon.
Rangers at Crater Lake have monitored
the trend for nearly a century. In warm
years like this, if you want to use your
Nordic skis or snowshoes in February,
you have to go where the snow still falls
deep enough for such sports. In Oregon,
the safest bet is Crater Lake.
Now’s the time to prepare asparagus beds
Gardening
Carol Savonen
Guest columnist
Question: I’d like to plant asparagus.
When do you plant it?
Answer: February is the time to order
asparagus crowns, which mature a year
or two faster than seed. And our rela-
tively dry weather we’ve been having
will allow you to work up a new bed.
Choose a sunny site, and amend the
soil deeply with plenty of organic mat-
ter. Asparagus will not grow well in
heavy, poorly drained soils, such as clay.
Be sure to add plenty of compost.
Then, around mid-March, plant crowns.
Planting a new asparagus bed is a
great example of delayed gratification,
as the crowns need a couple of years to
mature into a fully harvestable patch.
Fortunately, asparagus is a perennial
vegetable, so your efforts will pay off for
many years to come. A healthy aspara-
gus patch may yield luscious green (or
purple) spears for decades.
An added incentive is that home-
grown asparagus is way less expensive
and much better quality than store-
bought spears, which sometimes tend
to be woody and tough.
Asparagus crowns are for sale in
early spring. Territorial Seed Company
offers them beginning in mid-March.
The company has a variety called Pacific
Purple that I love. Its dark purple spears
are so tender they can be eaten raw or
cooked. Pacific Purple supposedly out-
performs and yields more than most
other green varieties, with thicker, ten-
der stringless spears that are higher in
sugars and anthocyanins. The purple
color fades with cooking.
Once you get the crowns, plant them
into the ground as soon as possible. The
crowns that you purchase for planting
often are the roots gleaned from 1-year-
old plants. Crowns offered for planting
have long fleshy roots extending from a
central axis.
Oregon State University Extension
horticulturists recommend planting as-
paragus in a trench about 6 inches deep,
planting crowns about 12 inches apart.
Spread roots, and cover the crowns with
2 inches of soil amended with compost
or slow-release fertilizer. Add lime if soil
is acidic. As the spears lengthen, fill the
trench with soil.
Male plants usually are more produc-
tive than females, which produce seed
that tend to sprout all over. Reputable
companies, such as Territorial Seed, of-
fer predominantly male plants.
The OSU Extension Master Garden-
ers recommend refraining from har-
vesting spears their first spring. Their
“ferns” provide food for the plant. The
second spring after planting, a few
shoots can be harvested, but only for a
week or two, then the rest should be left
to feed developing roots. The third
spring and thereafter, spears can be
From planting to harvesting asparagus
takes two to three years, but the wait
is well worth the reward. GETTY
IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
harvested until mid-June, then allow
the fern to grow and keep the root
crowns healthy. Thereafter, fertilize as-
paragus as the spears emerge each
spring and after the last harvest in June.