Visitor Services Plan, Crater Lake National Park
The Visitor Services Plan
DEVELOPED AREA PLANS
A new visitor contact station will be built at Rim Village near the cafeteria building to provide information, orientation, interpretation, Natural History Association (NHA) sales, a full-service post office for the summer, and year-round views of the lake. The community house, Sinnott Memorial, plaza comfort station, and comfort station #4 will be rehabilitated for their historic uses. The community house will be used for summer evening programs. The Sinnott Memorial will be used to present interpretive talks and exhibits about Crater Lake geology and ecosystems. The plaza comfort station and comfort station #4 will provide seasonal restroom facilities for visitors. The Kiser Studio, originally constructed as a photography studio, will be rehabilitated to offer interpretive exhibits on the cultural resources of the studio and village. The promenade and historic landscape will be rehabilitated to improve resource protection and visitor safety. All rehabilitation work will follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Additional interpretation and wayside exhibits will be developed in the village to enhance visitor understanding and appreciation of the park. During the summer, fine dining and overnight accommodations will continue at Crater Lake Lodge. The cafeteria building will be converted to its original 1928 configuration and external appearance, and the nonhistoric additions to the building will be removed. The rehabilitated cafeteria will provide a deli/fast food service and limited sundry and gift sales related to Crater Lake. In the winter a minimal amount of prepackaged food and beverages will continue to be available for visitors. The rehabilitated cafeteria will have a complete basement for food service and merchandise storage. Returning the cafeteria building to its 1928 configuration and appearance will benefit the designed landscape of the potentially eligible historic district.
Visitors will have access to essential interpretive and commercial services to meet immediate needs; however, other services that will otherwise detain visitors in Rim Village will be provided elsewhere. There will be a reduced demand for parking spaces because most visitors will spend less time at Rim Village. The parking lot in front of the cafeteria, next to the caldera rim, will be removed, and a new smaller parking lot will be built south of the cafeteria. The new lot will be connected to Rim Village Drive just east of the visitor contact station, thereby eliminating traffic in front of the cafeteria building and visitor contact facility. The area in front of the cafeteria building will be converted to pedestrian space. Visitors could use this space to walk from the visitor contact station and cafeteria building to the rim edge to view the lake and to walk along the promenade. Most parking will be retained along Rim Village Drive. The Rim Dormitory will be removed and the site restored. The historic landscape of the 1930s will be restored along the caldera rim, recreating the designed environment of that era. The picnic area will be redesigned to improve access and circulation. The aforementioned modification to the concession services at Rim Village coupled with redesign of some of the parking areas and road alignments will reduce congestion and facilitate pedestrian movement throughout the area. The Crater Wall Trail historically led from the promenade down to the lake. Its north aspect and an unstable slope made the trail dangerous and difficult to maintain. The trail was thereby abandoned in 1960 and replaced with one at Cleetwood. Some visitors are still able to see the Crater Wall trailhead from the promenade, and some have climbed over the promenade wall and walked along the trail, potentially endangering themselves. This led to one fatality in 1992. To correct this public safety hazard, the trailhead will be concealed by regrading and planting with native vegetation those sections visible from the promenade.
