Fumarole Bay is seen from the Wizard Island summit trail. Crater Lake National Park is among the places that will waive fees for National Public Lands Day Sept. 23.

CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK — No, Dorothy and Toto weren’t along, but we were off to see the Wizard.

We weren’t in Kansas, but at Crater Lake National Park on Wizard Island, the cone-shaped bump of volcanic rock that rises above the lake. Every time I’ve been on the island, it’s been seeing Crater Lake from inside-out.

That’s because views from Wizard Island provide unique perspectives of the lake and, even more, the walls of the caldera and its deep, amazingly transparently clear waters.

Visiting the island, a cinder cone that rises 767 feet above the lake, is a limited opportunity. A pair of lake boat tours offer three-hour island layovers, but this summer’s abbreviated offerings will end Sunday, Sept. 17, with no tours Saturday, Sept. 16, because East Rim Road will be closed for the annual Ride the Rim event. Current projections call for closing the Cleetwood Cove Trail, the only route to the lake and the concession-operated boats, after the 2024 summer season for two, three or possibly more years for extensive repairs and upgrades to the trail and boat docks.

That urgency is why 13 friends and I made the early morning drive to Crater Lake — check-in time at the trailhead parking lot is 8 a.m. Then it’s a 1.1-mile downhill hike to Cleetwood Cove, where the full lake tour with the three-hour Wizard Island layover, begins at 9. Overall, our trip lasted more than five delightful hours, including an information-packed ranger telling tales about the lake’s inner caldera before and after the island layover.

A treat awaiting us shortly before docking at the island — a bald eagle perched atop a tall snag. Once off the boat, most of its 44 passengers headed up to the island’s summit crater. Some stayed closer to shore, while Gary Vequist hiked to nearby Fumarole Bay, where he caught a rainbow trout.

The summit trail hike, which begins at the boat dock, meanders gradually but steadily uphill 1.1 miles through timbered sections to the top of the island with its plentiful, unique perspectives. The short third-of-a-mile-long loop trail provides 360-degree views of the lake and caldera. Some hiked down a trail that drops 90 feet into the crater’s belly. Sections of the crater loop trail feature weather-worn whitebark pines, which have markedly diminished over the years. Still, the remaining twisted, contorted survivors are always fascinating. According to park officials, the whitebarks were and are being killed by dwarf mistletoe, a parasite plant.

While on top, we found shady places to eat lunch. No matter where we rested, even more tasty than our sandwiches were the sights. From the island features like the 1,000-foot-long, knife-blade walls of the Devil’s Backbone, rock-studded Fumarole Bay, and wavy forms below Llao Rock evoke gee-whiz responses. It truly is seeing and experiencing Crater Lake from the inside out.

Not seen, however, are the lake’s depths, which bottom out 1,934 feet below the lake’s surface. Studies conducted in 1988 and 1998 in Deep Rover, a one-person submersible that probed the lake bottom, and other sonar studies indicate Wizard Island’s last eruptions happened when the lake was about 260 feet lower than its current elevation, 6,178-feet above sea level, a figure that fluctuates a few feet depending on snowfall and snow melt. According to park studies, Crater Lake’s last known eruptions “occurred when a small lava dome erupted underwater on the east flank of the base of Wizard Island about 4,800 years ago.”

On some visits I’ve hiked to and swam at Fumarole Bay or dived in from one of the boat docks, but time flew too quickly. Instead, while waiting for the boat to complete our lake circuit, others and I were befriended by a chubby Townsend ground squirrel — most people inaccurately call them chipmunks — that scampered about searching for snacks.

Too soon we left the friendly island resident behind and were back on board one of the new concession boats. It costs more, but instead of immediately returning to Cleetwood on a shuttle boat, we enjoyed another hour-plus ride, leisurely completing the circuit of Crater Lake’s inner walls. One of the many highlights included a pair of loops around the Phantom Ship. It’s from lake level that the 500-foot island, named Phantom because it sometimes is unseen from rim viewpoints, and its 170-foot-tall dagger-like spires can be truly appreciated.

Circuiting the lake offers many highlights unseen from other vantages. But exploring Wizard Island is truly an over-the-rainbow experience.