Picnic area · Crater Lake National Park
A quiet picnic stop among high-country whitebark pines.
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Crater Lake Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Crater Lake National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Crater Lake audio tourRecorded for this place
Mount Scott Trailhead“Mount Scott Trailhead is ahead, the start of a climb to the park's highest summit and its only in-park view of the entire lake.”
Plays as you drive up to Whitebark Pine Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Crater Lake Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Whitebark Pine Picnic Area is a roadside picnic stop on East Rim Drive near the Mount Scott Trailhead. The appeal is a break among a stand of high-country whitebark pines, rather than another lake overlook or a hike. Cloudcap Overlook and the Mount Scott Trailhead are separate nearby stops.
Whitebark pines are built for high, exposed country. Their cones stay closed until Clark’s nutcrackers pry out the seeds and cache them; forgotten caches can grow into new stands. The trees have declined at Crater Lake for decades, and the park’s whitebark-pine conservation work began in 2003.
Wildlife
16 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
178 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
26 sightingsCommon RavenMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
33 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around 1 PMSighting map
47 sightingsRed-tailed HawkMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
71 sightingsCascades FrogMost seen around 5 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Crater Lake. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingMount Scott Trail4.4 mi · 3 hr · 0.2 mi awayClimb for the park’s only full-lake view.
EasyPlaikni Falls Trail2 mi · 1 hr · 2.6 mi awayA gentle forest walk to a waterfall, with a brief final climb.
EasySun Notch Trail0.8 mi · 36 min · 4 mi awayA short loop through a pumice meadow to Phantom Ship.
ChallengingCleetwood Cove Trail2.2 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.4 mi awayA rare walk to the water, with a serious climb back out.
ModerateGrayback Road8 mi · 4 hr · 4.8 mi awayA broad, quiet forest walk along an old rim road
ModerateCrater Peak Trail6.5 mi · 3.5 hr · 4.9 mi awayA forested climb to a volcanic summit above the Klamath Basin.
Sight · 1.1 mi awayCloudcap OverlookA high east-rim pullout with a sweeping view into the caldera.
Sight · 1.4 mi awayPumice Castle OverlookAn orange pumice castle breaks up the dark caldera wall.
Scenic pullout · 1.6 mi awaySkell Head OverlookA roadside lake view with a glacial oddity in the rock.
Scenic pullout · 1.7 mi awayVictor ViewA quick lake stop with a story built into the east-rim stonework.
Scenic pullout · 1.8 mi awayReflection PointA long stone parapet frames another view of Phantom Ship.Sight · 1.8 mi awayPlaikni FallsA shaded forest walk ends at a snowmelt-fed waterfall.
Scenic pullout · 2 mi awayGrotto Cove OverlooksTwo roadside overlooks where the view reaches past the rim to Thielsen.
Sight · 2.5 mi awayPhantom Ship OverlookA jagged volcanic island that wears a ship's shape in fog.Parkwolf’s Crater Lake ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
