July 4 [1919]
Dear Mother & Muriel,
The last few days have been almost
the best of all. If you look on a
map of Oregon you will see Rogue
River which we have camped on
several times. It is quite renowned
for its fishing, runs rapidly mostly
through forest & is very beautiful. You
know the pictures you see of
fishing in the West, broad rivers
bounded by big pines, well, that
is just the sort of thing we have
been enjoying. The best of all however
was Crater Lake. I am surprized
that you don't hear more about
more extraordinary & marvelous
than the Yosemite. It is 7000 feet
in altitude, a lake, the crater of
a mountain about 6 miles wide &
almost perfectly round. You come
upon it quite suddenly & the
colors are so bright that in a
painting you would think them
exaggerated; very deep bright blue
particularly & beautiful reflections. We
got there about 4 o'clock in the
afternoon so just loafed around, took
pictures & watched the sunset. There
were drifts of snow all around three
& four ft. high but in the sun you
were warm even without a coat. You looked across the lake at
several snow peaked mountains &
behind you was a big stretch
of timberland and snow peaks in
the distance. In the morning we
walked down to the lake; the trail
is 1½ mile long & there was still
deep snow & a great deal of mud
& running water on it - never have
I enjoyed 3 hours more; I got a
great pool & standing on a rock
I looked down at really big
fish swimming around at my
feet, sometimes as many as
six of them at a time. I caught
three good sized ones & had my
picture taken holding them so that you will be able to see for
yourselves what a fisherwoman
I am. If I had been any good
I could have caught a lot more
because I got two more big fellows
on my line & was getting bites
all the time. Kate only got two
& the boys none so I felt quite
proud of myself. We were glad
enough that we did not have
any more to carry when it came
to walking up the hill which was
a hard climb, slippery & in the
high altitude breathless. We have
been eating trout ever since,
some have a pink flesh & taste
almost like salmon.
We left Crater Lake after lunch &
are now on our way to the
Mackenzie River & from there we
go to Portland which we ought
to reach in two or three days.
This trip seems like sort of
a dream to me, because it is
so different from anything I
have ever done before & we are
seeing such a lot of glorious
country. I don't think you could
beat our mode of travel for
seeing a great deal of country, &
having done it once this way
if you ever wanted to go again
you could take a riding or
of the country which appealed
to you the most.
We make a very genial group.
I have decided that people of
mixed ages & interests if they all
like the one thing that they are
doing together get on very well &
make a good party. You could not
get much more diverse characters
than all of us & yet we have lots
of fun together.
Got to stop now so as to have
this ready to mail at the next
stop.