Moments in Dirt and Ink

Lassen National Forest Lassen National Park (map link) Having had such a dry January and with a dry February predicted, I decided I could travel along highways that should be demanding I carry chains. (I do have chains, but fear that they wouldn't help my rig all that much if they were needed.) I had still passed up making any plans for Lassen National Forest due to its elevation. Then it took more than 5 hours to drive CA-299 because of all the construction and I found myself tired and in the dark in Lassen. A sign said there was a viewpoint in half a mile and I thought that at least I could stop and eat and see if it would let me sleep. Had it been light, or perhaps just with some brighter headlights, I'd have seen the sign pointing where to turn for the viewpoint. Instead, I turned 0.1 mile short onto the unsigned road for West Prospect Peak (which has a lookout). It was dry with humps of snow down the middle, which made me nervous. I saw an area others had pulled ove...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Click for map. After waiting far too long for the Visitor Center to open (9 AM is hours after the sun comes up!) because someone absolutely has to have some coffee, but cannot think all the way to buying some to have on hand, we headed off to see at least one thing that makes the park unique. The regular route is still closed by snow, but the boardwalks are open, so we are starting from a less traditional location. It is hard to believe that the spotty bits of snow around could be causing grand trouble to the shorter route that could not be fixed with a shovel in less than an hour, but at just over 5 miles and 1200 feet gain, this does not seem very hard to hike either. Parking is getting a bit crowded, though. It is quickly left behind as we take off into the trees. There they are, the trees. This looks like a super easy path. The gentle and rolling path passes by a sign next to a trail so light that there must be very few to take it. Over o...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Map link. In one corner of Lassen Volcanic National Park, there is a section of land marked "Fantastic Lava Beds" and, next to it, "Painted Dunes". Next to this is another feature nude of vegetation simply labeled "Cinder Cone" and next to it is the much larger peak of Prospect Peak. I decided to see how fantastic this lava bed actually was and get another peak in for good measure. Arriving at Butte Lake, promptly found two trails, one heading west around the lake and one heading up the hill to Bathtub Lake. Heading west, I found my trailhead next to a small lot off the boat launch. There was another map, looking angled at relief and showing the weakness of this as data communication since sometimes the mountains hide the trails, and a box full of brochures for the interpretive trail that starts here and goes along the Fantastic Lava Beds to the Cinder Cone. I headed first for Prospect Peak, which breaks off just un...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Map link. Warner Valley has a number of hydrothermal features including the hot springs that feed Drakesbad and Boiling Springs Lake and the steam vents that puff and stink in Devil's Kitchen and Terminal Geyser. I decided to take the day to see all of these, and if there was time, drive around and actually go down Bumpass Hell for more hydrothermal madness. Also, I wanted to go to the waterfall just upstream Hell's Kitchen which are marked on the 2002 Lassen National Forest map, among other places. So I drove up to the end of the public road that heads to Drakesbad and started hiking at the sign that seemed to indicate that there might be a loop through the Devil's Kitchen, but the two trails might not quite meet and there was no trail beyond it to the waterfall. Following the same route I took to Boiling Springs Lake along the Pacific Crest Trail for a short time, I cross over Hot Springs Creek on a nice bridge and look down to see...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Map link. Passing the entrance station and halfway to the park boundary from there, a parking lot marks the start of the trail up Brokeoff Mountain. My hope had been to go up Lassen Peak, but since the park is doing a multiyear trail rehabilitation project and has that trail closed somewhere between half and two-thirds of the way up we came here instead. This trail is considered more pleasant but does go up to a shorter peak after climbing a longer distance. We passed some tiger lilies in the stream just before the lot and starting up the trail were greeted by more of them and other flowers as well. The trail crosses the stream, or attempts it for a while, near where a number of tiger lilies hang. Some purple bell flowers that are on their way to seed.

Lassen Volcanic National Park We stopped at the Sulphur Works where the highway crosses a hydrothermal area and we could have a quick look at steam vents and boiling mud. It stinks a bit and the rocks seem to have taken on a bright yellow in many places around it. Just off to the side of the road, a mudpot bubbles and boils quite noisily. Click here to hear it. A steam vent in the dirt above the bubbling mudpot. The rocks are stained yellow above the stream of runoff from the Sulphur Works. Rocks above the Sulphur Works pick up both reds and yellows. ©2012 Valerie Norton Posted 2 Aug 2012

Lassen Volcanic National Park We weren't feeling like we had the time to go down to the hydrothermal area known as Bumpass Hell, but we did stop in the lot and have a look around. View out over the valley that is the anchient caldera of Tehama Mountain, of which Brokeoff is the largest remnent. The hillside on the far side of the valley from the road has many colors in it. Brokeoff Mountain, the tallest remnent and the mountain we'll climb up later. ©2012 Valerie Norton Posted 2 Aug 2012

Lassen Volcanic National Park Lake Helen is a spot along the road, so this is just a spot to stop and rest and stretch and take a few pictures for us. The south side of Mount Lassen reflecting in Lake Helen. A little more of the surrounding mountains of Lake Helen. ©2012 Valerie Norton Posted 2 Aug 2012

Lassen Volcanic National Park Map link. We awoke in the south part of Summit Campground ready for a longer day of hiking without any need to drive around. The planned trail is a loop of a little more than 10 miles passing by a large number of lakes with a few more on spur trails (in relation to the loop) if we decide we need more. We checked the campground map at the entrance to find where the trail left from the south side of the lake as the main trailhead is at the north side. With a brief stroll down a trail that actually just went to the lake, we found our way to a bridge and a route past the campground amphitheater to the trail. We should have passed an intersection on the way for a trail that travels down the drainage of the lake, but it wasn't signed and there wasn't much certain indication of the trail. The junction to our trail was much better marked, although someone had tried to add arrows to confuse the issue. The trail started off climbing out of the la...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Locate the trailhead. Owing to one modern convenience's flip side of road construction and the age old problem of finding the perfect camp site (or any camp site not next to the road or stuffed too tightly between other sites) we only had a few hours before dark to meander our way along a trail on the first day in the park. The original plan was a backpack that wandered through the park and came out the Caribou Wilderness after many lakes and cinder cones and such. Considerations turned that into a series of day hikes. We decided upon a hike that started where we would have at King's Creek going downstream, but looped around and back to the road. It has spurs to a waterfall and cluster of lakes with views of Warner Valley below. It turned out a little long for the time we had. Grabbing a spot along the road in the parking turnout, we could hear a great flow of water passing somewhere nearby. It came mostly from above the road until we ...

Warner Valley, Lassen Volcanic National Park Locate the trailhead. This was a quick hike late in the day before driving back home. Warner Valley is along a road that goes into the park and stops a bit east of the main road. A sign in Chester pointed the way to the park road. Keeping left, then right brought me to a small parking lot for the Pacific Crest Trail well after the road had turned to gravel. The trail had many junctions but was well signed. Someone had written in "Boiling Lake" on the one sign post that forgot to mention it. The lake itself was a very easy 1.5 mile up the trail which has a loop around it. It's so easy, or maybe the land so cold this time of year, that I was quite comfortable in my thermals the whole way up to the thermal feature. The road actually goes up to a ranch just past the trailhead. I followed the PCT along through some sloshy grasses and over a small but fast stream to a footbridge across a small but fast river. Above t...

Lassen Volcanic National Park Locate the trailhead. I drove around to the far side of the mountain the long way around because the road was closed through the park. The north side of the park doesn't have quite as many features to look at even though the road isn't closed until about 10 miles after the entrance station. It goes up to a parking lot in the Devastated Area, so called for having been destroyed in the most recent eruption. There is a picnic area and small loop with interpretive trail around the various lava rocks that came from the mountain when it blew. The north side of the mountain and the land that was cleared by the 1915 eruptions.

Lassen Volcanic National Park Locate the trailhead. I headed up to Lassen to see what I could see. I have not been for quite some time. Being a wintry time, the mountain was covered with snow. The southernmost mountain of the Cascades, Mt. Lassen, viewed from the road on the way up to the park but still quite a ways off. A dribble of water along the roadside in the park has turned into a frozen waterfall with some water still flowing.