Crater Lake, OR

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Hanno

OBS Chief
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Location
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We have started making some preliminary plans to travel to the west coast from our home base near BAL. One of the places we have never visited has been Crater Lake, OR. We have not determined the dates yet as train avaialbility and lodging may be determining factors. Has anyone traveled to Crater Lake area by train? If so, which train would be recommended? A rental car would be necessary so that could be a factor as well.

As always, any suggestions are appreciated!
 
Klamath Falls is actually a nice town- close by and big enough to have rental cars, etc. While you're there, check out Lava Beds National Monument too. The Coast Starlight arrives and departs at reasonable hours.
 
The nearest Amtrak station to Crater Lake is Chemult, OR (CMO) on the Coast Starlight. However, you will not find

any rental cars there. From personal experience I can tell you that there are a few hotels within walking distance

but generally I would not suggest using the Chemult stop as a base to visit Crater Lake.

If you are heading north on the Coast Starlight, best option is to get off in Klamath Falls (KFS).

The northbound train has a nice morning arrival time there and there is an Enterprise location less than a mile from

the station. They should be able to pick you up at the station. The downside is that if you are returning on the Coast

Starlight southbound, the train departs a few hours after Enterprise closes so you will have to either do an after-hours

drop and find your own way to the station, or return the car while they're still open and resign yourself to waiting

until train time. (If you continue north on the Coast Starlight this is not an issue.)

Heading southbound you'd want to get off in Eugene (EUG). The advantage of EUG is that it's on the Cascades corridor

which gives you more train options. However, it's a slightly longer drive to Crater Lake. (Plan on 2 hours from EUG, or

1 hour from KFS). In downtown Eugene there is a Hertz and an Enterprise within reasonable distance of the Amtrak

station. I believe in both cases they will pick you up at the station.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your trip.
 
I'm a native Oregonian and have to say that K-Falls is where you want to get off the train. Chemult looks good on a map but, to be kind, it's a wide spot in the road. And the station is truly an Amshack. Services are limited to a gas station, several bars, and establishments catering to the outdoorsman trade. K-Falls is a real town, with all the services for which a tourist would be looking.

Eugene is a pleasant place but my maps show the drive to Crater lake as 181 miles taking about 3 1/2 hours while from Klamath Falls its about 62 miles or an hour and a half.

Beautiful country, that part of the state. Enjoy your visit.
 
One thing I would add in addition to my previous post:

The section of Coast Starlight between Klamath Falls and Eugene is one of the nicest on the route,

winding high over the Cascades as well as along lakes and rivers.

Northbound, it's entirely in daylight year-round. Southbound, you get most of it in daylight during the

summer months. So no matter where you plan to detrain, you may wish to catch that particular

section of the Coast Starlight either coming or going. It'd be a shame to get that close and not

travel over it.
 
Hanno said:
We have started making some preliminary plans to travel to the west coast from our home base near BAL. One of the places we have never visited has been Crater Lake, OR. We have not determined the dates yet as train avaialbility and lodging may be determining factors. Has anyone traveled to Crater Lake area by train? If so, which train would be recommended? A rental car would be necessary so that could be a factor as well.

As always, any suggestions are appreciated!
Click to expand...
Not train suggestion but when we went there in 2003 in late June the road was not open that circles the lake. It opened while we were there on July 1. Some drifts were over 15 feet high..in summer. So if you want to drive around the lake, and it is a gorgeous drive, you might want to plan accordingly.

There were a lot of bugs there too. But the snow was good for snowball fights for the kids.

Dan
 
fairviewroad said:
The nearest Amtrak station to Crater Lake is Chemult, OR (CMO) on the Coast Starlight. However, you will not find

any rental cars there. From personal experience I can tell you that there are a few hotels within walking distance

but generally I would not suggest using the Chemult stop as a base to visit Crater Lake.
Click to expand...
What is the sense in this Chemult stop if it doesn't have even a rental car facility? Who is stopping there???

It's a small village with just few houses.
 
colobok said:
What is the sense in this Chemult stop if it doesn't have even a rental car facility? Who is stopping there???

It's a small village with just few houses.
Click to expand...
Bus connections to Bend and Redmond? It would be 195 miles without a break between EUG and KFS without this stop? Gateway to central/eastern Oregon? Because it was a flag stop on SP's Cascade? I dunno, but around 9000 people per year use it with but one train each way each day.

My mistake in an earlier posting, a new station was opened in November - Amshak no more.
 
colobok said:
fairviewroad said:
The nearest Amtrak station to Crater Lake is Chemult, OR (CMO) on the Coast Starlight. However, you will not find

any rental cars there. From personal experience I can tell you that there are a few hotels within walking distance

but generally I would not suggest using the Chemult stop as a base to visit Crater Lake.
Click to expand...
What is the sense in this Chemult stop if it doesn't have even a rental car facility? Who is stopping there???

It's a small village with just few houses.
Click to expand...
Chemult is the closest stop to Bend, and several other towns in central Oregon. In fact there is a schduled Amtrak Thruway van between Chemult and Bend and Redmond, with a stop at Sun River, which is a summer resort area as well as winter ski area. See page 105 of the Amtrak national timetable. I have seen a surprisingly large number of people, some with skis, get off the Coast Starlight in Chemult and trudge off in the snow in the middle of winter.
 
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I had never heard of Crater Lake, being an East coast resident, until this thread and after googling it, I now have to add it to my "must see" list. It looks fabulous. Yet another thing learned from this forum.

Thanks!
 
Thanks to all for your input. Still working on putting this trip together and the advice is appreciated. I was recently watching the Ken Burns film series on the National Parks. The railroads played a major part in the development (and also exploitation) of our national parks. But thanks to some farsighted individuals, to whom we are indebted, we have such wonderful places to visit today!
 
There is a neat old motel in Fort Klamath (somewhat close to the park) called Joe's Motel and Organic Grocery. I think all of the units have kitchen facilities. We found to be a great place to stay if you are going to be in the park for a couple of days. I agree Crater Lake is a must see. I crossed off my bucket list last year.
 
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I encourage you to vista Crater Lake, also. I have been through Klamath Falls on the train last October. A few years ago I drove through and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Nothing unusual, but could be practical for your trip.
 
If you have a desire to see more of the Cascades than just Crater Lake take the CS to Chemult and the Ambus to Bend or the Redmond airport to rent a car. Mt. Bachelor outside Bend will have skiing available until Memorial Day weekend. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell snowshoed in Crater Lake NP yesterday.

Next Saturday I'm taking my daughter to Crater Lake. I'm going to throw the snowshoes in the car in case I don't like the ones the Park Service provides for the Ranger led hike.

Chemult has 2 hotels, a Pilot gas station with Subway and 2 smaller gas stations. The restaurants in town are quite poor. The closest real grocery store is in La Pine about 33 miles away.

The north entrance to Crater Lake off Rt. 138 will open the 3rd or 4 week of May. Some years it doesn't open until July 1.

The photo on my profile is the new shelter across the parking lot from the Chemult platform. It looks a lot better than the old steel shed and the uncovered platform that never got the snow shoveled off.

About a third of the parking lot was flooded when I got off on Feb. 12.
 
I would strongly advise against returning a car to Enterprise after hours. I did this once, and was charged several hundred dollars for damages that were not on the car when I returned it. Oddly, the only photos of the damages Enterprise could produce were from several days after I returned the car. In checking around, I found out that this happens with Enterprise more frequently than one thinks it should.
 
frequenttraveller said:
I would strongly advise against returning a car to Enterprise after hours. I did this once, and was charged several hundred dollars for damages that were not on the car when I returned it. Oddly, the only photos of the damages Enterprise could produce were from several days after I returned the car. In checking around, I found out that this happens with Enterprise more frequently than one thinks it should.
Click to expand...
Not to take this thread too far off-topic, but I had that happen once with Hertz (so it's not just an Enterprise thing). In my case, on the advice of my employer (who paid for the rental) I wrote back to Hertz and asked how they intended to prove I had caused the damage given that their only evidence was a photo taken nearly a week after I had returned the car. They promptly rescinded the bill. Needless to say, I never rented from that Hertz location again.
 
Klamath Shuttle (541-883-2609) offers seasonal service to Crater Lake, usually starting in July. They also operate the Crater Lake Trolley around the lake.
 
​Creator Lake is absolutely amazing! I live in Bend, OR (Central Oregon hwy 97) and I never tire of seeing the magnificence. I love to go early in the summer season, end of May or early June because of the contrast of color; white snow and blue water & sky. The entire rim will not be open that early in the season (usually opens closer to July) but do not let that stop you! Enjoy!!!!
 
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