It was the last RV trip of 2025.
It seems like such a short time ago I was getting ready for the camping season with some new gear, lots of cool reservations and the eager anticipation for another season in the Atlas.
Trips to Lake Chelan, Deception Pass State Park, and Traverse City, Michigan were all memorable and set a new summer record for Noel and I on the number of nights we spent in our camper. State parks, national parks and local RV spots were all part of our 2025 summer camping season.
How do you top that? By hitting one last national park for this season – along with a 25 mile bike ride!
Every September, Crater Lake National Park sets aside two Saturdays for “Ride the Rim” events where you can ride 25 miles around Crater Lake with no automobile traffic. No honking horns – or even better – no worrying about a driver texting while driving and passing you riding a bike at the same time.
So we loaded up our Trek e-bikes onto the back of the camper and set out on a Friday afternoon for the 350+ mile trip from Richland to Crater Lake RV Park.
Noel always asks how I find these camping spots.
It is a combination of internet sleuthing, listening to RV podcasts, reading on-line reviews – and sometimes just luck.
Crater Lake RV park was a gem. Beautiful back in spots, full hook-ups, and majestic pine trees. It was quiet and idyllic.
Because the days are getting a bit shorter – we set up the Atlas in the dark. I was well prepared with headlamps – but we don’t often have to fumble around in the dark getting electricity and water hook-ups. A little bit of light and some patience – and we were good to go for our first night.
On Saturday morning, we got up bright and early at 5 a.m. and set out on our 45 minute drive to get to the North Entrance to Crater Lake National Park. After showing my National Parks Passport Card – free entrance when you are over 62 – we entered the park and waited for our bike riding colleagues – Phil and Jeanne Weiler – to meet us at the park entrance.
I am sure you are asking yourselves at this point – is ANYONE even up and moving around Crater Lake at 6:30 a.m?
YES.
Somewhere over 4000 bike riders converge on Crater Lake for the annual Ride the Rim bike rides. There is also every type of bike you can think of that people bring – we saw tandem bikes, normal touring bikes, class 3 e-bikes (the ones you don’t have to pedal), recumbent bikes … you get the picture.
After being shown to our parking place – we had a quick breakfast and got ready to set out on our 25 mile trip around the rim.
The scenery in Crater Lake is spectacular – and riding it on a bike lets you stop and see a bit more than is possible when driving the ring road.
There was quite a bit of elevation differences (i.e., steep climbs) – we had to bike up some pretty significant hills – and we all were thankful for our pedal assist e-bikes.
The 25 mile trip went quickly and we completed it after just a couple of hours with plenty of stops.
After a road side lunch in the camper of chicken salad, potato salad, chips and some cider – it was time to say goodbye to Phil and Jeanne and for us to head to the campground.
After a solid nights sleep, we headed back to Richland for another 350 mile drive.
It was a fitting end to an amazing RV camping season. It will be hard to top this one in terms of the variety of different places we stayed and camped.
Can we top the 2025 camping season in 2026?
Only time will tell – but challenge accepted!
Kirk’s Travelogue 
I’m adding it to my list as we’ve also got e-bikes and to ride it around the rim sounds like an amazing way to take it all the surrounding beauty. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
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