The origin of the name of the National Park feature is unknown, but the appeal of the area is clear
Plaikni Falls, a classic waterfall, is an easy one-mile hike in Crater Lake National Park. [Photo by Lee Juillerat]
Lightning Springs water flows gently from its source in Crater Lake National Park. [Photo by Lee Juillerat]
The Pinnacles Overlook and Trail offer views of the spectacular volcanic activity in Crater Lake National Park. [Photo by Lee Juillerat]
Sometimes the timing is right.
Our timing for a hike at Lightning Springs, a relatively unvisited area below the West Rim Drive in Crater Lake National Park, was fortunate. This is because the day friends and chosen for hiking brought cloudless skies and bright blues.
But two days later, the park was filled with several hours of rain, thunder and, of course, lightning.
Since then, new lightning has been blamed for starting a series of fires along the Cascades between Crater Lake and Bend that have closed sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT runs north-south through the park: the equestrian section below Rim Drive, the hiking section mostly along the rim. Earlier this week, the Pacific Crest Trail Association had asked PCTers to stay off the trail between the park’s northern boundary and Willamette Pass.
The area is historically prone to lightning, but it is not known if that is how it got the name Lightning Springs.
Research by longtime Crater Lake historian Steve Mark has turned up some interesting leads. “There isn’t much about the origin of the name, and I checked the various compilations in my place name file,” reported Mark, who has spent the last 35 years in the park and checked various sources “all to no avail “.
According to Mark, Frederick Lyle Wynd’s 1928-29 compilation says the origin of the name is unknown. Wynd should know: He’s been a seasonal lead naturalist at the park for nearly a century. Mark’s research indicates that the United States Board of Geographic Names made the name Lightning Spring official in 1933, although it “appeared on park maps as far as I could find as early as 1911.”
Mark also read the field notes of JD Diller, who was a member of the first geological survey of Crater Lake Caldera in 1883. In the August 1896 notes, Diller “described the spring at least once , but he did not name it, while he used other names for various places in the park.”
Mark also found a text reference in George Goodwin’s summary of the 1914 construction season, when Goodwin was working as a project engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers highway system. Writing about the 1914 construction season, Goodwin reported that a temporary road had been built between the “hotel” (Crater Lake Lodge) and Lightning Spring to establish Camp No. 6 and Corral No. 6 for the following 1915 season.
“This was a tent camp less than a quarter of a mile from the spring, actually springs, one of the few times the plural is correct for a name in the park,” reports Mark. He also learned that Goodwin wrote, “It is now possible to get a team and wagon to Lightning Spring” on page 9 of his Crater Lake National Park, Improvement of Roads and Bridges, November 1914.
Likewise, the Crater Lake Institute website says the trail was formerly a fire control road.
On other visits to Lightning Springs, I remember a more lush and flowery area, obviously watered by the springs. Instead, this time, the water flowing from its small 3-foot-diameter rock opening was not gushing but rather like an open faucet.
Friends and I followed a trail to a nearby area with designated campsites, then hiked cross-country to find and rejoin the trail. From the springs, it’s about four miles to the PCT, but we weren’t going that far. A generally reliable guidebook says a waterfall is less than a mile up the trail from the springs. There is a 15-foot “waterfall,” but it’s not the classic kind, and instead dribbles through a narrow, bush-lined drop.
Later that day, after stops that included views of the Watchman and Pumice Castle and the rugged Pinnacles, we went to Plaikni Falls. The mostly flat, one-mile trail is among the park’s most-used trails for good reason. Plaikni is a classic 20 foot cascading waterfall.
Until 2011, when a trail was built, the little-known area was known as Anderson Falls. After consulting with the Klamath tribes, park administrators renamed it Plaikni, a Klamath word for “of the high country.”
The name Plaikni is familiar, but based on current weather trends, the name Lightning Springs is surprisingly appropriate.
Contact freelance writer Lee Juillerat at 337lee337@charter.net or 541-880-4139.
