To reach the trailhead in the national park, take Oregon Route 62, aka Crater Lake Highway, into the park. Turn onto Munson Valley Road; at the intersection with Rim Road, turn right and stop in the Rim Village parking area. The Discovery Point Trail heads northwestward from Rim Village’s west end where the paved sidewalk turns to a dirt path. The trailhead is unmarked.
The trail heads about the rim of Crater Lake for nearly 1.5 miles (3-miles round trip). Most of the route parallels West Rim Drive.
The lake sits inside the collapsed remains of an ancient volcano known as Mount Mazama. About half a million years ago, Mount Mazama began to grow with lava flows overlapping one another to form an irregular shaped peak. About 8,000 years ago, the volcano likely stood as high as 12,000 feet.
Then, around 5700 BC, Mount Mazama experienced its most violent eruption, dropping layers of ash more than a thousand miles away in Alberta, Canada. It was the largest eruption in North American for more than half a million years.
Today, the lake reaches a depth of 1946 feet, North America’s second deepest and the world’s ninth deepest.
Here’s a video of Crater Lake:
Here's an article more fully describing the trail.
Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.
