This much-beloved historic property overlooking magnificent Crater Lake was rebuilt from the ground up in the late 20th Century. Two decades later, it is showing its age, with a variety of dated features and miscues. The large public rooms with stone fireplaces on the first floor are probably its best feature, with solid furniture and decent sitting areas, although finding a seat can be challenging as is the service in this semi-great room from the restaurant and bar. Upstairs lodge bedrooms are quite small and have an odd configuration, with the sink and mirror in the bedroom, the toilet, bathtub and shower in the bathroom. We had paid an extra $20 for a lakeside view room, but our room on the second floor had small windows that allowed looking at the lake only while standing up. That did provide us a vantage point to watch a spectacular Crater Lake sunrise as buffered light in brilliant hues slowly began to brighten the massive caldera. The other great place to watch this was the downstairs patio outfitted with classic rocking chairs, but only the foolhardy would have tried that then since the patio area was subjected to dangerous falls of ice from the roof after an early October snowstorm. That could sum up our stay at Crater Lake Lodge, a place with great potential but as many minuses as pluses, plus no real competition nearby to prompt needed improvements.
