Lodge Lament

I took my family to the refurbished Crater Lake Lodge, endured one night, and fled (“Under the Spell of the Volcanoes,” June 18).

In the dining room, the food is OK but the service is appalling. Half the rooms are on the west side of the building and (for $130) are small and unbearably hot. After dinner you can’t sit on the porch to look at the lake (man-eating mosquitoes) and the lobby was overcrowded, so we went up to our little rooms and fried.

At 3 a.m. a fire alarm wakened us. We stood around in the hall hoping a staff person would tell us whether it was a false alarm--but nobody came. My grandchildren were terrified. From 6 a.m., zooming trucks and departing hotel guests slamming their car doors and calling to each other provided entertainment outside our open window. Then at 8 a.m. the fire alarm went off again. I advise friends to sleep in Ashland or Medford, drive up for the day and picnic.

C.N. STOCKTON

Santa Monica