McKenzie River National Recreation Trail - Clear Lake

Our next destination was another point on the McKenzie River Trail to Clear Lake.  An underground spring is the source of Clear Lake and the spring and the lake are the headwaters of the McKenzie River. The 5 mile trail around the lake travels through old growth forest, a lava field and past the beautiful spring.

Source Spring for the McKenzie River

One reason the water is so clear and blue is the temperature.  It is just above freezing varying from 34 to 42 degrees all year long.  The other reason is the lake bottom is full of deposits from diatoms (small organisms made mostly of silica). The silica is mostly white and helps refract the light so that the lake seems really blue.  Whatever the reasons, the effect is beautiful.

Clear Lake

At one end of the lake you can see an underwater forest.  A volcanic eruption about 3,000 years ago created a lava flow that caused the lake to fill very quickly submerging part of the forest.  The temperature of the water was too cold for the organisms that decompose wood, thus the forest still remains. 

Even though the water is cold, there is much aquatic life in the lake. Cutthroat trout are native to the lake and rainbow and brook trout have been introduced. An osprey soared above us at one end of the lake and although we kept an eye out, we didn’t see any eagles.