Camping at Timothy Lake and a Little Crater Lake visit

I’m a little bit of a purist when it comes to camping. I don’t like the idea of staying in a real campground and so try to hold out for those hidden gems where you can find solitude with a view. But sometimes it just makes sense to camp in a place set up for such events, and after visiting Timothy Lake a few weeks ago and being in awe of the place, I knew there were plenty of places to choose from when it came to paying for an opportunity to set up a tent and have a drop toilet nearby. Two, even.

So what’s the origin of Timothy Lake? Is it natural, or man made? “The compacted-earth Timothy Lake Dam was built by Portland General Electric in 1956 to regulate seasonal water flow to Lake Harriet downstream.” [Wikipedia] But from the Oak Fork Campground, far from the dam view, we were completely surrounded by nature. We had a spot right next to the water, convenient for our inflatable stand up paddle board. The trail heading around the lake, perfect for a half-marathon distance, was just below our tent entrance between our camp site and the lake. I enjoyed it many times for walks, runs and hikes where we headed to a small section of the Pacific Crest Trail, and even followed the pathways to Little Crater Lake.

Little Crater Lake

I wasn’t too aware of Little Crater Lake, but seeing how close it was to us near Timothy Lake I was dead set on seeing this little marvelous wonder. Swimming is prohibited, but with the water in the 30s due to the spring that creates this feat of nature it would be a very rude Polar-bear-club-worthy awakening. No thanks. Sheer cliffs drop off to 42 feet in depth, all of which you can see from the top if you look over the edge just right. And you can skip the 5-6 miles one-way to get there from Oak Fork since the parking lot is only about half a mile away at the nearby campground.

Gabe and Emily both had other things going on Sunday, so they took off after lunch leaving just Naomi, me and Sobo. We exhausted ourselves with that long hike to Little Crater Lake, and decided shortly after returning to the camp site that we’d rather just sleep in our own bed. We packed up and were out of there by 7PM, aware that the sleeping bag Sobo had peed on and general dirtiness that camping with a dog brings would soon be in our rear view mirror. Well, in memory at least.