Visiting Wizard Island

We got the last tickets to board the boat to Wizard Island for the day. In a celebratory gesture, I take a very graceful jump into the crystal clear water of the lake. It is said to be the clearest of any lake on the planet.















It certainly felt like one of the coolest. It was quite refreshing after the dusty, dry hike in the blazing sun.

















This was a view from the boat that ferried us around the lake (no other boats are allowed on the lake). We had views from the water that were both entirely unexpected and gorgeous.









A perfect example of this is a rock formation called Devil's Spine. This was formed from molten magma seeping up between the rocks and then cooling slowly forming a harder crystaline structure than the surrounding rocks. This resisted the forces of erosion leaving this unusual spine along the edge of the caldera.














We climbed to the top of Wizard Island (another hot, dry, steep hike). Kem (the monkey) tries to climb one of the tortured white bark pines.










There are no other sources of water for the lake other than snow and rain. Despite this we found a virtual oasis of green in mid July as the snow melt formed a cascading waterfall.









This is a water level view of Phantom Ship. It is less famous than Wizard Island but I found it more captivating. When seen from the water it did appear to be almost ship-like and then vanished (like a pirate ship) into the background as we left.