3 Hours at Crater Lake

3 Hours at Crater Lake                                                      ©2006 Alan Schrank

I drove to Crater Lake from the red wood forest of northern California, arriving shortly before sunset. It was deserted, the visitor center closed for the night.  I was taking pictures of the lake as the sun went down while deciding where to sleep for the night.  A car pulled into the overlook parking lot, a young man got out and came over to me.  He told me he was on leave from the service, was driving from San Diego to Portland to see his family, and had stopped to take star trail pictures.  I had never done that before, but he told me how he was going to do it and would help me a bit.  He left about an hour and a half after sunset, to complete the rest of his journey.  I, having nothing better to do, stayed the night in my van experimenting (and freezing).  This is a three hour exposure, the longest I attempted.