Lassen Volcanic National Park

The north entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park was a little over an hour to the east of Redding, CA, where we were staying. A visit to Lassen Volcano was one of the main reasons we decided to stop in Redding. Lassen Volcano is a dormant (not extinct) volcano that last had a major eruption in 1915. Several minor eruptions occurred over the next few years into the early 1920s.

The main road through the park a little less than 30 miles long, and winds around three sides of Lassen Peak. Although there three additional remote entrances to the park (one at the far northeastern corner and two at the far southeastern corner), the roads for these entrances do not connect to the main road or to each other.

We started our tour of the park at the northern entrance because it was closest to where we were staying. Just inside the north entrance is Manzanita Lake. We enjoyed the 1.8 mile hiking trail around the lake that is an easy one-hour walk and with beautiful views of the lake itself and of Lassen Peak reflected in the lake. We were even able to stay ahead of the exuberant group of kids hiking behind us that broke the peace and quiet. Margery loves walks in sun-dabbled woods, and this fit the bill. The lake is also popular for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing.



Continuing along the park road, we passed through an area called Chaos Jumbles, which is strewn with millions of tons of rocks that were probably blown out of the side of the volcano by a steam explosion about 300 years ago. Some of the rock bounced off the base of another mountain and dammed up a stream creating nearby Manzanita Lake shown in the photo above.

A little farther along the road is the Devastated Area, which was the result of the latest major eruption which occurred in May 1915. The eruption created a huge mudslide of melted snow and ash. The flow lines where the mud slide roared down the side of the volcano is highlighted by the melting snow in the photo below. The mudslide flowed directly toward where we were standing.



The road continues to wind through the forest, and we were soon at Kings Creek Meadow. Kings Creek Meadow, which is shown in the next photo, was covered by even more snow than Tuolumne Meadows, which we saw at Yosemite several weeks ago. We're sorry, we can't help it, there's just something wrong with a meadow still covered with this much snow in June!



Lassen Volcanic National Park can have a snow cover of up to 40 feet. No, that wasn't a typo, we mean to write feet. That's the reason there was still so much snow left in June. However, the main road opened all the way through the park early this year on June 6. It usually doesn't open until mid-June.

Past the meadow, the road starts to climb even higher in elevation. There are incredible views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the south.





The snowbanks along the pull-offs were so high in some spots you couldn't see the views. Paul had to climb up on the snow to get some of the photos.

To give you an idea how much snow was left at some of the higher altitudes, the snow is over Margery's head in the next photo. This picture was taken at a picnic area and the little building in the background with snow up to the roof is the rest room. This isn't just a pile of snow along the road. The snow is 5 or 6 feet deep from where Margery is standing all the way to the rest room and beyond.



The next photo shows Lake Helen where a few spots have started to melt through the ice. Lassen Volcano is in the background.



Just beyond Lake Helen is the parking area for Bumpass Hell. Bumpass Hell is named for K. V. Bumpass who was a guide in the area in the 1860s. He plunged through the crust in this area and fell into a seething mud pot. Although his leg was badly burned, he was able to joke about how easy it was to decend into hell. There is a three-mile hiking trail and boardwalk through steam vents, mud pots, hot springs, and fumeroles. Unfortunately, the trail wasn't open yet because of snow. The photo below is taken from the parking area and shows tha upper part of where the trail leads to Bumpass Hell.



Also at the parking area is a balanced rock left by glaciers. We could see where the rocks at the overlook had been scoured smooth.



An organization called EarthScope has a Plate Boundary Observatory Project set up at Lassen Volcanic National Park. There are numerous very accurate GPS receivers set up at various locations to measure the movement of the earth's plates. The receiver shown below was located adjacent to the parking area at Bumpass Hell.



From Bumpass Hell, the road descends past hillsides that reminded us of Yellowstone Canyon. There are yellows, tans, and oranges that come from sulfur and other minerals.



Right near the south entrance to the park is an area called Sulfur Works. Here, there are steam vents like the one shown in the next photo.



And there is a very active, bubbly mud pot.



From the south entrance, it took a little longer to get back to the motor home than it did to get to the north entrance in the morning. It was a long, but interesting day. Look for our next post to see our next sightseeing adventure in the Redding, CA, area.