A collapsed volcano. A 7,700-year-old secret. The purest water in North America.
About 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama — a 12,000-foot volcanic peak in the Cascade Range — erupted with such catastrophic force that its summit collapsed inward, forming a caldera nearly five miles wide. Over centuries, rain and snowmelt filled it with water so pure, so still, and so deep that it absorbs all wavelengths of light except the shortest: blue.
The result is a lake of impossible color — a blue so vivid it seems digitally enhanced, a blue that has no precedent in nature except the open ocean. Visibility in Crater Lake reaches 100 feet — among the clearest freshwater in the world. There are no rivers flowing in or out. The lake is sealed from the outside world.
At the center sits Wizard Island, a cinder cone that formed after the caldera collapse — a volcano born inside a volcano's grave. At night, with virtually zero light pollution and 6,173 feet of elevation, the Milky Way arches directly overhead in a spectacle that rivals any on Earth.