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My family is visiting from Maine next week, and we’re planning to visit Crater Lake. The last time they were here in the 1990s, there was so much snow we were pretty much contained to the Rim Village. I know there are some pretty spectacular views all the way around the lake. I was wondering when the road was built? — Sam K., Ashland You and your family won’t be stuck at Rim Village this time around, but most likely you won’t be able to motor all the way around Rim Drive. We checked with Crater Lake National Park, and the latest word is that the eastern portion of Rim Drive won’t be open to automobile traffic until the end of June. Mount Mazama was Oregon’s highest peak, about 12,000 feet, before blowing its top. The remainder of the old volcano is still more than 8,000 feet above sea level, so it snows just about any time of the year. That snow keeps plow crews busy all winter, spring and even in the fall. The good news, however, is that if you don’t mind hoofing it or riding a bike, you can navigate the whole road even now. Rim Drive, the 33-mile loop around the lake, is actually the second road built around the lake. The first was completed nearly a century ago. In 1913, Congress appropriated funds for the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a 12-foot-wide road around Crater Lake, but the project was delayed by World War I and it wasn’t opened until 1919. Within a decade surveyors and road builders were back at it, with the Bureau of Public Roads, National Park Service and Civilian Conservation Corps pitching in to develop an 18-foot-wide road with 3-foot shoulders. The foundation was put in during 1933 and 1934, and paving was completed in 1935. It took another six years to finish drainage, erect stone guardrails and complete observation points. Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.