Lassen. Volcanic National Park Recognizant Visit

We were up early this morning, because we wanted to arrive at our destination--Lassen Volcanic National Park--before the crowds. We're here on a recognizant visit, as we're looking for the best things to show a special guest tomorrow. We were camped only 25 miles from the north entrance of the national park, but it was a slow drive around the park. Our first stop was to get a close-up look at Lassen Peak. We've spied her from the distance several times in the last several days, but this morning we got the epic shot of Lassen Peak reflected in the glass-like waters of Lake Anne.

This imposing mountain could be seen from all angles, including above the boggy meadows on our drive this morning.

Lassen Peak also showed up as the shadowy background for a blue heron this morning.

We've studied the map and read the reviews, and our priority was to hike the most popular trail in this national park early while we could still get a parking space. It was an hour and ten minute drive to get to this trailhead, and there were only a few vehicles that beat us here this morning. The morning light was still low as we started up the trail to Bumpass Hell.

One of the first stops on the trail was at this patch of snow just across from Anne Lake and that beautiful view of Mount Lassen. You would be hard-pressed to get that picture without other people and lots of vehicles any other time of the day.

As we hiked, we were entertained by the ground squirrels eating their breakfast as the sun was rising.

We chose the "Frying Pan" alternate route to give us the best views as we approached the valley. This trail was so popular because it leads to a steaming sulfur valley that Mr. Bumpass discovered many years ago.

He called it "hell" because of the boiling mud pots and the strong smell of sulfur emitting from the fumaroles.

Mr. Bumpass gave tours to this hellish valley, until he broke through the crust on one tour. The sticky burning mud clung to his leg and foot and burned him badly. We obviously wouldn't get off the trail here! Based on how popular this trail is, it was amazing that we got pictures with no one else in them this morning.

But Mark is an inquisitive soul, and he wanted to know the temperature of this sulfur water. In the stream that was leading away from the valley it was very warm.

He had to really work to feel the water closer to the source. He probably wouldn't have laid down on the boardwalk and stuck his hand in the water if we weren't the only ones here this early morning. But he can give a first-hand report that the water was very hot closer to hell.

It was 46 degrees when we started on the trail, but it got noticeably hotter and smellier as we got closer to the geothermal valley. Then we walked up to the overlook to see the larger valley below us. This area is the reason that Lassen Volcanic National Park is sometimes called "Little Yellowstone." We will need to bring our special guest back to see Bumpass Hell tomorrow.

It was an uphill hike out of hell, and we met lots of hikers as we left. The views closer to the top of the trail included the volcanoes that surrounded us. Just like the valley was full of geothermal activity that was heated from the center of the earth, the mountains had a history of the heated volcanic activity. Right above Mark's left shoulder was an example of what was left after another volcano erupted and left a splintered cone.

Denisa was standing by an oddly shaped and positioned boulder that was left from the glaciers that once came grinding through this valley. The glaciers carved out lakes and left large rocks behind in odd places.

After clearing our noses of the sulfur smell of Bumpass Hell, we drove three miles to another trail head. We were surprised that no other cars were there at 10:00, but this was a less popular hike. So again, we had the trail to ourselves as we walked beside the giant trees that we love.

This tree was not only huge, but it also had an interesting alligator-like trunk.

This was the Three Lake Trail, and we hiked 0.6 miles to see the first one. Welcome to Terrace Lake.

Its shores were filled with these lovely bright pink clustered flowers that we don't remember seeing before.

We couldn't decide on our favorite picture of Terrace Lake. Would it be the one with pink flowers in the foreground and the lake blurred in the background?

Or would it be the one taken from some height with the clouds reflected on the glassy water while we could still see Denisa and the sparkling clear water near the shore?

Or would it be the side view with the rock wall and trees completely reflected in the water with Mark in the foreground? We obviously loved spending time at Terrace Lake!

It was another 0.4 mile hike to arrive at the second lake.

Welcome to the largest of the three lakes--Shadow Lake.

We walked around this beauty taking pictures from different angles. The water kept changing colors on us. Mark commented, "Different views--different hues." But all of them were lovely.

It was hard to leave such a pretty place. We had definitely wandered into more of God's wonders here in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

And we had this beautiful place all to ourselves in the middle of the morning!

As we circled the lake, we suddenly saw Lassen Peak peeking over the trees.

Again, we couldn't pick a favorite picture of Shadow Lake. Would it be the side view with Lassen Peak reflected in the water? 

Or would our favorite be the one with Mark in the foreground and the beautiful blue sky and water reflecting the clouds?

It was another 0.5 mile hike to get to our third lake. That took us through forests of old growth trees . . .

and lovely stands of silver-leafed lupines along the trail.

The third lake was Cliff Lake. While it would usually impress us with its snow-laced shoreline, we were already "wowed out" this morning.

It was easier to pick a favorite picture because we only took a couple. This was where we saw our first hikers on this trail. Another couple had caught up with us since we were taking so many pictures at the first two lakes.

After a great hike to three different lakes, we turned around to head back to the pickup.  It was interesting that both of our hikes today were downhill first, then required a climb uphill to get back to the trailhead. On our way up, we kept seeing this bright green ferny growth on the forest floor.

It looks even more curious with an up-close photograph.

It loved to grown on fallen logs throughout the forest.

On our way back, we stopped for one more picture in front of Shadow Lake, but the magical glassy reflections were gone. We met lots of hikers on our return trip, and we thought it sad that they missed out on the earlier morning views that we enjoyed all by ourselves. While we loved this hike, we decided it was too long for our special guest tomorrow.

We tried to visit Lassen Volcanic Park when we were on the west coast in 2021. In fact, we were heading here when a wildfire broke out, and they closed the national park and all the area around it. As we drove around the park, we saw miles of trees that burned that year.

This was a big park with lots of stops to make. We drove all the way to the south entrance, where we stopped at the visitor center to watch the film and eat lunch. We plan to bring our guest back tomorrow to get a national park stamp. But today we made most of the stops, including this one at Emerald Lake. No hiking necessary here, because the lake was located right along the road that runs through the park.

That road took us right beside the Devastation Trail. It provides a half-mile trail through signboards that explain the devastation caused when Lassen Peak volcano erupted in 1915. It spewed rocks and lava that caused an avalanche, and then the lava melted the snow. That made a wall of water that destroyed all the trees and carried huge boulders three miles into the valley. This huge boulder was still warm three days after the eruption carried it three miles from where it originated at Lassen Peak.

We stopped in at Manzanita Lake, but we were too tired to make the hike around it. We left the trailer at 6:00 a.m., and we didn't get home until 6:00 p.m. We hiked 22,000 steps and 70 floors of elevation gain on this day. As we were leaving out the north entrance of the national park, we stopped by a lovely pull out where we saw a ranger with binoculars. We never drive by a ranger looking at something. We were hoping for larger wildlife, but it was only a dipper in the river flowing under the bridge. But it was a lovely place, and a good place to say good-bye to Lassen Peak . . . until we bring our special guest tomorrow.