Access to this stunning place will soon be limited. Photo: Anukrati Omar
If you’ve ever dreamed of swimming in the famously blue waters of Oregon’s Crater Lake, this summer will be your last chance until 2029. The National Park Service announced that the only permitted access to the lake, the Cleetwood Trail, will be closed starting in the summer of 2026 with a tentative reopening date of summer 2029.
During this time, the national park will undertake a restoration project to address “critical safety issues,” which includes improving the tread quality and retaining walls on the 1.1-mile trail, mitigating rockfall risk along dangerous portions of the trail, replacing the lake’s dock with a stable marina, and replacing outdated composting toilets.
No one will be able to access the lake during the construction and, consequently, there will be no boat tours departing from the dock at the bottom of the Cleetwood Trail on the lake’s northern rim. Visitors can still visit the park and view the lake from any of the several vistas along the rim road.
Crater Lake, the deepest in the United States at nearly 2,000 feet, is a natural wonder in southern Oregon that receives 500,000 visitors annually. The lake was formed by a catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago – the largest known eruption that the Cascade Range has experienced in a million years. The 12,000-foot Mount Mazama collapsed into its present-day 8,100-foot height, forming a massive caldera that filled with water, creating Crater Lake.
The lake has no outlets and doesn’t receive influxes of sediment. As a result, the lake is renowned for its water clarity and various hues of blue that change with depth. It’s a popular destination for visitors to swim, cliff dive, and take boat tours to Wizard Island, a volcanic cone within the crater that protrudes above the water level.
The National Park Service notes that the trail will reopen in 2029 only if construction goes as planned, so the closure could be prolonged. The short construction seasons when the area is devoid of snow add a variable that can affect the timeframe suitable for working.
