Project Description

The Cleetwood Cove Trail serves about 60,000 hikers per year and is located at the north end of Crater Lake on East Rim Drive, approximately 4.5 miles east of North Junction (the junction of North Entrance Road, East Rim Drive, and West Rim Drive). The 5,458 foot-long hiking trail varies in width from approximately 5 to 8 feet and descends 651 vertical feet from the caldera rim to a small marina at the shore of Crater Lake. Small off-road maintenance vehicles are occasionally used on the trail. The marina facilities include a small boat launch, composting toilet, and a covered fuel tank.

Background

The boat launch marina had included a landing above a bulkhead at the lake shore, but the bulkhead structure failed in recent years. Work has begun to remove the failed bulkhead. When boats are in operations, a temporary dock system is anchored directly to the shore, accessed by a gangway from the abandoned bulkhead. Visitors headed for the tour boats must now navigate 100 feet down the shore to access the gangway, and park crews must reset the gangway to adjust to even minor changes in the lake level.

The Cleetwood Cove Trail is in badly deteriorated condition due mainly to ongoing soil erosion caused by wind, water, and gravity. Retaining walls and dry-stack rockeries are partially undermined and rotating outwards, showing signs of structural distress. The trail tread surface is also eroded in several locations. Rockfall hazards are present along the trail and at the marina and originate from steep slopes and overhanging cliffs above the trail and marina.

Scope of Work

The scope of the project is to reconstruct the marina and trail, the need for rock scaling of slopes above these facilities before reconstruction begins, and installation of minor structures to mitigate rockfall hazards, such as protection fencing or draped wire mesh.