“I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
‘Til I’m free
Oh, Lord through the revolution”
– From the song “Fly Like an Eagle”
Written by Steve Miller and performed by the Steve Miller Band
From 1992 to 2017, I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, and one of the deepest lakes in the world. It is considered one of the cleanest and purest bodies of water in the world, giving it a deep blue cobalt color on clear days.
The lake sits inside a collapsed volcano, known as Mt. Mazama. A series of eruptions over 420,000 years built the volcano to an estimated height around 12,000 feet. Mt. Mazama had a climatic massive eruption 7,700 years ago that caused the mountain to cave in leaving a 6-mile-wide bowl like basin, known as a caldera. The average height of the rim about 1,000 feet above the lake shore. Several peaks over 8,000 feet stand at or adjacent to the rim. Much of the year these rim mountain peaks are covered in snow. With the snow and pine trees on the mountains and in the caldera, the dramatic volcanic peaks and edges, plus the brilliant blue water, Crater Lake is one of the more picturesque places you can behold.
When I was at Crater Lake, I never tired of standing on the rim to admire the beauty. Even more, I loved hiking up the trails to the 8,000-foot mountains along the rim to get even more dramatic views of the lake and surrounding area.
Spending time working and exploring Crater Lake, I regularly saw planes flying over the national park. Crater Lake was on a flight path of some commercial jets. Occasionally, military jets flew way too close over the lake with their shrieking loud engines. These planes were irritating the way they would disrupt the quiet serenity of the national park The jets came from the nearby Kingsley Field Air Force Base in Klamath Falls, Oregon, located over 60 miles southeast of Crater Lake. Even more, it was not unusual to see small private planes fly over the lake now and then.
During my time living and working at Crater Lake, my parents came from their home in St. Louis, Missouri to visit me. To this day, my mom and dad talk about viewing Crater Lake from one the commercial flights they took. While l loved enjoying the scenery from the rim and hiking up the 8,000-foot peaks inside the national park, I was curious to see how Crater Lake looked from a commercial jet or a small private plane.
In the fall of 2009, I housesat at a friend’s house in Ashland, Oregon, a two-hour drive south of Crater Lake. The house had a separate garage unit. Above the garage was an apartment with a tenant, Cassie. Soon after I started housesitting, I would run into Cassie as she was leaving to go or come home from work. She worked in a veterinary clinic in Ashland. On her weekends, she had access to a small four passenger airplane which she flew regularly. When she was not flying the plane, she stored it in an indoor hanger at the Medford Airport, a 20-minute drive north of Ashland. With my curiosity to see Crater Lake from an airplane, I asked Cassie if she could give me a ride in her plane sometime. She replied that she would be happy to do that.
Not long after my conversation with Cassie, the owner of the house decided to move back home. She did not need me to housesit for her anymore, so I unexpectedly spent the rest of the winter in my hometown St. Louis. I returned to work at Crater Lake in May 2010. I stayed in touch with Cassie. With our busy schedules, the earliest I could join her for a flight in her airplane was on July 23, 2010. I asked Cassie if my friend and co-worker, David Grimes, who was the lead naturalist ranger at Crater Lake could be with us for this flight. Cassie readily agreed that Grimes could join us.
This was Grimes 8th year working at Crater Lake. He had never viewed Crater Lake from an airplane, so he was thrilled to join me. Grimes and I drove separately to meet Cassie at the Medford Airport at morning around 10:30 am. No clouds were in the sky and the visibility looked ideal for this warm summer day to see the lake from a plane. After we arrived and met up with Cassie, she had to get the airplane out of the secured hanger. After she opened the hanger doors, she inspected the plane for spiders and spider webs since she had not used the plane in weeks. She did not want us to be bitten by any spiders that made their way inside the hanger.
Cassie pushed the plane carefully out of the hanger. She wanted to make sure that the plane wings did not bang against the hanger garage doors that were barely opened wide enough for the plane to be wheeled outside. Once the plane was outside, it was a bright white 4 passenger airplane that looked well maintained and would be a fun flying experience.
Cassie then encouraged Grimes and I to enter the airplane. I decided to sit in the front passenger seat. Grimes sat in one of the back seats. Within minutes, Cassie had us slowly taxiing towards the runway. She had to radio the flight control tower for permission to take off, since commercial passenger and freight airplanes took off and landed from this airport.
Once Cassie received permission from the control tower, the plane started picking up speed to take off from the runway. Like any flight, before we knew it, we were disconnecting from the ground and starting to fly in the skies above Medford, Oregon.
It was stunning to see up in the plane the views of the tall mountains within the vicinity such as Mt. McLoughlin and Mt. Shasta in northern California. On my side of the airplane, I had a close view of the jagged Union Peak, which is in the southwest corner of Crater Lake National Park. It normally an hour and a half drive from Medford to Crater Lake. About 25 minutes into the flight, I started to see Crater Lake. It was definitely a different perspective looking at it standing on the rim. I could see the contours of the old Mt. Mazama rising above the nearby land with a giant blue lake sitting in the middle. The blue color of the lake matched the color of the sky.
Except seeing the highway leading up to the park and the Crater Lake Rim Drive, very little glimpses of civilization would be seen from the air. Cassie made sure we flew over Rim Village so we could identify the historic Crater Lake Lodge, the rim concession employee dormitory, and the Gift Store/Cafeteria building. We spotted the ranger employee seasonal and permanent employee housing through the vast forest of trees, that is a 3-mile drive but only 500 feet below Rim Village. Cassie generously circled around the Rim Village and ranger housing area twice so Grimes and I could get clear views of where we lived and worked.
Cassie insisted though that she would be following FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations to always fly 2,000 feet above any developed area like Rim Village and at least 1,000 feet above any natural area. Cassie flew several times above Crater Lake to make sure Grimes and I could fully appreciate the lake and national park from the air. The 6-mile-wide lake still looked huge from the air like the lake could still easily swallow up the airplane.
When Cassie would lean the airplane hard to the passenger side so I could get better views, I felt some vertigo like we might fall into Crater Lake. We were safely wearing seat belts and Cassie flew the airplane in a gentle smooth way. When she would tilt the airplane to get better views of the lake and the mountains around the rim, I felt enthralled seeing the aerial views of Crater Lake. Yet I also felt a bit uneasy flying at a weird angle.
After close to an hour flying above Crater Lake, Cassie started veering the plane back to Medford. I will never forget seeing the forests in all directions leading away from the lake. In the distance, the snowy mountains north of the park poked above the horizon to the north, such as Mt. Bailey, Mt. Thiesen, Diamond Peak, and the Sisters Mountains of central Oregon.
As we flew back towards Medford, Cassie offered to let me fly the airplane from the controls on the passenger side. I never thought I would fly a plane in my life. It was an exhilarating feeling briefly fly the airplane.
By 12:30 pm, we were back on the ground in Medford and helping Cassie well the airplane back inside its hanger. Grimes and I both took many photos with our digital cameras. For years afterwards, Grimes used photos he shot from the airplane that day for various Crater Lake National Park Service publications.
Crater Lake is a magnificent sight to look at standing on the rim in the national park. It was a peak life experience for me to view it from an airplane. It was another way for me to see that we live on a spectacular planet. In 2008, I decided to follow a passion to be a climate advocate. In November 2009, I took the title the “Climate Change Comedian” on a dare to try to protect our planet. In April 2010, I created the website www.climatechangecomedian.com to promote my advocacy. Seeing Crater Lake from an airplane made me more determined to do what I can to help protect our environment and planet.
I hope you will also be inspired to protect the environment and our planet, even if you never get a chance to see Crater Lake or other natural areas from a small or commercial airplane.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog: My sad and scary experience flying over Crater Lake in a commercial airplane in August 2017.
