Lassen Volcanic National Park
California, August 2017
“Home to steaming fumaroles, meadows freckled with wildflowers, clear mountain lakes, and numerous volcanoes.” – NPS
Trip Highlights: Bumpass Hell Trail * Manzanita Lake
Coming from Crater Lake NP, we arrived at Manzanita Lake Campground around 9pm – pitching camp in the dark again! We couldn’t see much of this new place but it had different sounds. The kids immediately picked up on how crunchy the ground was with the thick carpet of pine needles. Dinner was cereal by lantern light.
The primary way to see Lassen Volcanic National Park is via Highway 89, which goes from Manzanita Lake at the north where we were, around Lassen Peak, to the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the south. It was a bit of a slow morning and we hit the road around 10:30. We drove almost non-stop to the south entrance, the only exceptions being a couple places where one of us hopped out for pictures.
At the visitor center, we caught a showing of their informational movie – again very interesting to see how violently and drastically the landscape has changed. Afterwards, we got the kids free Junior Ranger activity books and checked out the displays. One of our favorites was a 3D model of the park that located and identified all the volcanoes that surrounded us – the park has all four types in the world! Another was a sandbox that had topo lines projected onto the surface and they would instantly update as you played with it.
We had a delicious lunch of summer sausage, Havarti and Gouda cheese, crackers, and apples. We brought it thinking we’d be on a hike by now but it was just as much of a hit at the visitor center. Being crunched for time, we bypassed the Sulpher Works bubbling mud pots thinking we would see some on the hike. We did see some but, judging from our drive-by in the car, the ones at Sulpher Works were bigger and closer.
Bumpass Hell Trail
We hit the trail to Bumpass Hell at midafternoon and it was hot out! It is 3 miles roundtrip and goes to a series of boardwalks where the hydrothermal activity is right at the surface – steaming vents, boiling mud, etc.
The hike is pretty exposed, both to the sun and to some steep dropoffs. Plus, much of the boardwalk didn’t have guardrails! The kids impressed us again with how well they hiked, especially in the heat. We would find out later that Luke didn’t like the narrow trail but he sure didn’t show any signs of nerves at the time!
As I write this, I see that the trail to and the boardwalks at Bumpass Hell are closed for all of 2018 in order for rebuilding and rehabilitation to take place. Bummer for those going to the park this year but they will undoubtably be welcome improvements for a popular hike.
Back at the parking lot, we enjoyed the dusk views and playing around the giant boulder. It was almost 7pm by the time we got back to camp.
We didn’t have all the ingredients for our planned dinner and the camp store was closed so we improvised and had terriyaki chicken salads. It has been so hot here that our chocolate bars melted into a paste – we had to spread it onto our s’mores. No complaints.
That night Katie and I dabbled in photographing the stars. It was clear and there is virtually no light pollution out here. We didn’t stray from camp and we don’t have the best camera equipment for it but we had fun and were able to capture more stars than could be seen with the naked eye, albeit pretty grainy/blurry.
Manzanita Lake
Today is our day to recharge – no long drives, just having fun around the campground. The kids worked on their Junior Ranger books (Maggie kept reminding us to tell her if we see a nest so she could cross it off her list). There is very little underbrush so the kids had lots of room to run and play. We took a short walk to Manzanita Lake and were back at camp for lunch.
For the afternoon, we went to the Manzanita Lake day use area to lay around and play in the water. We even rented a kayak and paddleboard for a couple hours and took turns taking the kids out.
Once you get out on the lake, you have a beautiful view of Lassen Peak.
Elizabeth mastered the paddleboard really quickly and would take it out by herself. It must be more stable for little kids – it was pretty tricky to balance on for us adults!
Most of the little kids’ time was spent building sandcastles and then running/kicking/jumping at them from the lakeside, sending a deluge of water at the defenseless structure.
At one point, while Maggie was diligently attending to this important work, I asked if she wanted to try the paddleboard. She responded in all seriousness, “I do but that would be a waste of my time.” Hard to argue with that. (She eventually found the time : )
Our recharge day included showers! I hate to admit it but while Katie hurriedly cycled the three girls through the campground’s coin-operated girls showers, Lucas and I enjoyed seemingly unlimited time in ours. Feels good after five days!
We had dinner back at camp. Proud parent moment: We have a green kid-sized camp chair that is a hot commodity and that morning we let Annie use it and Margaret would get it for dinner. Well, dinnertime came and we half expected it to be an issue again but Annie didn’t throw a fit when she didn’t get it and then Margaret let her use it even though Annie didn’t even ask!
We made one more outing to the lake, this time for sunset. On our way we saw several deer, including a fawn. Always cool to see wildlife.
At the northwest end of the lake, there is a trail that leads to a good view of Mt Lassen and as the sun goes down, it gets bathed in the light of the sunset.
The highlight for the kids was the gigantic pine cones.
Last memorable kid quote for the day: We told Annie she was a tough cookie and, apparently feeling the need to disagree, she said, “Not a tough cookie, a tough . . . dinner, maybe a tough hot dog.” If you say so!
Time to move on to the coast and the highly anticipated Redwoods! We were packed up and driving away by 10:30 but stopped and spent some time at the Loomis Museum for the kids to complete a scavenger hunt. (When it came time to get sworn in as Junior Rangers, though, poor Lucas wasn’t feeling well.)
Lassen may not be one of the iconic parks but there is still a lot of unique beauty . . . and the lack of crowds is a bonus!