Watchman Peak Trail is a popular trail with lot of traffic. The trail is located on the West side of Crater Lake with beautiful view point at the trail head. This is also one of the only trail with restroom at the trailhead. The trail itself is only 1.6 miles roundtrip with some elevation gain. Thus it is very family friendly and suitable for people with all ages.
We got to the trailhead around 10AM and there were still parking spot. When we got there, the trail was marked as closed due to lingering snow. However, when we hiked up a bit, we only see a very tiny section of trail covered in snow with nearly no risk of slipping. Thus continued to hike the trail like many other people.
The trail continuously climb upwards with consistent elevation gain. We saw many people wearing masks on the trail due to the pandemic. As we hiked further, we got to the intersection where the right side goes to Rim trail and left side goes to Watchman Peak. We continued on to Watchman Peak and got to the top within 30 minutes.
At the top Watchman Peak, the breeze of the wind felt so good. There was a hut at the top for rangers to overlook the entire Crater Lake National Park. At the time when were were there, there were no rangers stationed there.
From the Watchman Peak, we could see the entire Crater Lake. The view was simply amazing. We could see how round Crater Lake really is. The Wizard Island was just in front of us as well and we could see the crater at the top of Wizard Island.
When we came back here at night, we could also see people doing night hike to the top of Watchman Peak. The top of the peak offers a magnificent view of Milkyway.
Overall, Watchman Peak trail is a must do trail when visiting Crater Lake. It is quite an easy trail and offers one of the best view over Crater Lake.
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