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72 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Britt Festival Medford Cruise Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 13, 2005 Visitors to Crater Lake will soon find it more peaceful at this lookout point at Rim Village. The parking lot will be moved behind the visitor building and the lot restored with native landscaping. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Crater Lake makeover Changes to buildings, roads and parking lots are likely to inconvenience park visitors this summer By PARIS ACHEN Mail Tribune Visitors to Crater Lake National Park will encounter a flurry of construction and tangled traffic this summer along Highway 62 and the Mazama and Rim villages. The changes, the most dramatic the park has undergone during a summer, will relocate parking away from the lake’s rim renovate the visitors services center there, park officials said. A new restaurant will come to Mazama Village near the south entrance at Highway 62. Meanwhile, renovations will allow the establishment of a science learning center for educators and researchers at two houses built in the 1930s for the park superintendent and chief naturalist. A Federal Highway Administration project will also revamp eight miles of Highway 62 inside the park. The aim of the projects is to improve visitor services and help preserve the national treasure, park officials said. Advertisement "This is a very major part of the visitors service plan we adopted several years ago," said Michael Justin, concession management specialist. "All of these things will make it better for the visitor and enhance their experience." At Rim Village, work set to begin this month will move the parking lot overlooking the lake behind the visitor services center. Rim Village is a cluster of rustic structures that sit near the southwest edge of the caldera off Rim Drive. The parking will become multi-level and will no longer offer a view of the lake. The site of the old parking lot will be landscaped to restore its natural beauty, Justin said. Pumice walkways will lead to the rim. "The old parking lot is interruptive to picking up the view of the lake," Justin said. Renovations will transform the visitor services center into two separate buildings connected by an underground tunnel. The National Park Service is funding the $8.5 million project. Before it was closed in April, the center held a gift shop and cafe. When it reopens in spring 2007, one building will offer a gift shop, deli and meeting room. The other structure will eventually be made into a visitors center with interpretive information. Funding for that effort is not yet available, Justin said. Construction continues on a new 10,000-square-foot restaurant and gift shop at Mazama Village. The buffet-style eatery will replace the cafe previously at the Rim Village visitor services center. "It will disperse traffic in the park, so it doesn’t impact the rim as much," said Dominie Lenz, general manager of concessions at Crater Lake. Scheduled to wrap up in the fall, the restaurant will open to the public in summer 2006. The menu will offer fresh pastas, pizzas and salads. Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the park’s concessionaire, is funding construction of the $3.2 million structure and will operate it for at least the next 13 years. The science learning center near the Steel Information Center at Munson Valley Road will debut in summer 2006. The $1.7 million project will "foster research in the park and turn it into information to share with the public either through schools or interpretive programs," said Marsha McCabe, the park’s chief of interpretation. Money from the park service and a donation from JELD-WEN Holdings Inc. in Klamath Falls are paying for construction. Hoping to improve safety on the journey to the lake, the federal government has dedicated $3.5 million to replacing pavement this summer on an eight-mile stretch of Highway from the southwest park boundary east to the south entrance near Annie Creek. The work includes softening some of the road’s hazardous curves and replacing guardrails. The projects will likely inconvenience by reducing parking, delaying traffic and limiting food service. A concession stand will offer food near the Steel Information Center. As closure of the Rim Village parking lot approached, some visitors last week enjoyed the last days of being able to park and view the lake. "I like it like this," said Medford resident Mary Ann Williams as she shared a spread of pinwheel sandwiches with her family in the bed of her pickup, overlooking the lake. Her husband, Kevin Williams, said he is in favor of the lake’s rim looking more natural. But he said he is concerned the change will limit access to the lake for people who have trouble walking. "I worry only able-bodied hikers will be able to see," Kevin Williams said. Crater Lake, Oregon’s only national park, is on 183,224 acres in Klamath County. Reach reporter Paris Achen at 776-4496 or e-mail [email protected] . 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