Steel Information Center — Attraction in Klamath Falls

I am writing to express my disappointment with our recent experience at the Steel Visitor Center, where we encountered what we believe to be blatant racism from one of the rangers. This particular ranger, who was thin and elderly, treated us markedly differently compared to other visitors.

As we observed, he was polite and helpful to those ahead of us, providing detailed information and suggestions. However, when it was our turn, his demeanor changed abruptly. He rudely asked us, "Can't you read this?" when we inquired about basic information. Trying to overlook his initial rudeness, we asked about trails and open hikes in the park. Instead of assisting us, he curtly told us to check the website.

It became clear that he was unwilling to engage with us, so we decided to leave the information desk queue. To our dismay, we saw him revert to being friendly and informative with the visitors who followed us. This confirmed our suspicion that his behavior towards us was intentional and discriminatory.

This experience at the Steel Visitor Center was deeply troubling. We chose to seek information from the Rim Village Visitor Center instead. We strongly urge the Steel Visitor Center to reconsider their hiring practices and address the issue of racism among their staff. No park guest should ever be made to feel unwelcome or...

We visited the Steel Visitor Center at Crater Lake on July 4, 2025, and despite the holiday crowds, it was a great experience.

The place was bustling with fellow park-goers, but the staff remained cheerful, helpful, and welcoming—which really made a difference. The visitor center has a fantastic selection of books ranging from geology and hiking guides to nature writing and even fiction. The gift area was well-stocked with souvenirs—T-shirts, sweatshirts, patches, stickers, maps, coloring books—you name it. Great place to grab a memento of your trip.

The building itself is a gem: an old log structure that’s been beautifully restored and really adds to the character of the park. Clean restrooms, accessible drinking water for refilling bottles, and solid amenities all around.

The parking lot was a little tight, but we were able to get our van in without much hassle. We left with a patch to add to our growing National Parks collection—and a lot of appreciation that the center was open and operating smoothly on a major holiday.

Highly recommend stopping in here during your visit to...

Steel Visitor Center is located below the rim near the southern entrance at Annie Springs. The building itself is a really cool building, and there's a fair amount of in the parking lot.

The Visitor Center finally reopened in 2024 after being closed for renovations for awhile. This is definitely a cool spot, and it's really fun to enter from the north entrance through the covered stone walkway.

The Visitor Center itself has all sorts of cool little gifts and Knick knacks, ranging from keychains to postcards to close to books and pretty much everything in between. The people who work here are very friendly, and The Visitor Center itself has some wonderful exhibits as well as a film "Crater Lake: Into the Deep" that place here.

The building is a wheelchair accessible entrance and a wheelchair accessible parking lot, and it's a great place to bring young kids. They're also restrooms available here and a post office!

If you've never been here, the Steel Visitor Center is definitely worth a stop. It's much better than anything on the rim itself at...