National Parks: Lassen Volcanic

Why Not Visit. . . Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen is one of my favorite national parks for two reasons.  (1) You can see a lot of the same volcanic features as at other parks (2) without the crowds of other parks.  Everyone in the US knows about Yellowstone National Park and its Old Faithful Geyser and Grand Prismatic Spring.  Yes, Yellowstone has the world's largest collection of geysers in the world, but it has the crowds to match. When I visited Yellowstone in 2010, I spent more time looking for parking than I did looking at the volcanic features.  Watching Old Faithful erupt was a little less magical due to the thousand other people surrounding me on the boardwalk.  Lassen has many of these thermal features on a smaller scale, and in all likelihood you can experience them by yourself.  Lassen also has something Yellowstone does not.  At Lassen I saw excellent examples of the types of volcanoes: cinder cone, shield volcano, and stratovolcano.  

I visited Lassen in 2013, when I went on a camping trip with three friends who were also in graduate school for geology.  If you can deal with all of the nerding out, I highly recommend visiting a national park with a natural scientist.  They will probably notice things other would walk right past.  We drove up to Lassen from Santa Cruz, California, which is located about and hour south of San Francisco.  The drive from Santa Cruz to Lassen, which is located in Northeastern California at the end of the Sierra Mountain Range, took 4-5 hours.  So for those who must fly in to California to visit Lassen, San Francisco International Airport is not a bad option.  The high Sierras where Lassen is located get an extreme amount of snow, over 40 ft each winter.  Many areas of the park close seasonally until enough snow has melted to allow safe access, this can mean some areas of the park do not open until mid July.  

We entered the park from the south and made a pit stop at the south visitor's center.  The visitor center is a must see.  A three dimensional map equipped with lights in the entrance will show you where the different types of volcanos are located in the park, and a short film will told us about the geologic history of the park as well as show ariel views of different volcanos within the park.  Watching that video made the trip for me, because when all of us geologists saw the perfect example of a cinder cone volcano that exists within Lassen on the big screen, we all independently but cohesively decided we wanted to see that cinder cone.  

The cinder cone volcano in the park aptly named cinder cone.

There was only one problem.  Our campsite was located at summit lake campground, a campground we chose due to its central location and small size, while still being equipped with running water.  To see the cinder cone volcano, we would have to drive north, exiting the park, then east, then south again reentering the park.  The entire drive would take about 4 hours.  Since we had just spent 4 hours in a car getting to Lassen, no one in the group was enthused to climb back into the car for another 4 hour drive.  As we stood around the 3D map equipped with lights pondering the situation, one in the group pointed out that a series of trails that connected led all the way from our campground to the cinder cone volcano.  It was 8 miles one way.  To a lot of people a 16 mile hike over volcanic landscape does not sound like fun.  Volcanic landscape usually mean a lot of uphills and downhills combined with ground composed of loose shifting sand and silt.  You might take one step up hill only to slide part way back downhill, with every step.  There was also minimal or no tree cover for about half of the trek.  Oh, and it was July and hot.  We had a blast on that hike though.  We stopped on the way a couple of times to cool off by swimming in one of the lakes on the way, and to refill our water bottles, purifying the water first of course.  Fortunately our campground was named Summit Lake, because it was adjacent to a shallow cool lake.  So we had an easy way to clean the grime of an 8 hour hike off once we got back to camp.  

Hiking across the volcanic landscape of the park.

Summit Lake, the lake adjacent to our campsite.

I mentioned thermal features exist in the park and I will now return to that.  The main hydrothermal area of the park is Bumpass Hell, I kid you not.  The name comes from when an early settler fell into a boiling pool, severely burning his leg.  You can approach Bumpass Hell from two directions.  We hiked from the north on a longer trail that was about 6 miles round trip.  However, from the closest parking lot to Bumpass Hell, the round trip hike is about 3 easy miles.  Bumpass Hell is home to mudpots, fumaroles, and boiling pools.  Mudpots and boiling pools are pretty self-explanatory.  Fumaroles are areas of the ground where steam escapes to the atmosphere, and Lassen has one of the hottest in the world, up to 322 Fahrenheit.  Swimming in these pools of hot water might seem as attractive especially on chilly days,  However swimming is illegal and dangerous, as they are not only hot but also very acidic.  The strong sulfur smell (like spoiled eggs) that envelopes the area should make the idea of swimming off-putting.  There is another hydrothermal area of the park aptly named Sulphur Works, but we did not visit this area.  

Photos from Bumpass Hell, the main hydrothermal area of the park.

The last activity we accomplished in the park was hiking Lassen Peak.  Lassen Peak is a volcano rising to 10,463 feet at its summit, which last erupted in 1905.  We hiked Lassen Peak on the 4th of July.  What better way to celebrate our nation that to go hiking in a national park?  The main reason we chose to hike this peak on this particular day, was that the trail was open.  Like much of the park the trail is only seasonally open, and due to its high elevation the peak retains snow longer than other areas of the park.  Also, even when the trail can be open due to lack of snow, it is often closed for improvements.  The trail up Lassen Peak is steep at about 20% grade by my calculations.  So even though it is only 5 miles long roundtrip, the hike took us more like 4 hours to complete, including lunch at the summit.  The high elevation also made breathing a little harder as we came from sea level.  

Lassen Peak covered in snow from 8 miles away at Cinder Cone.

At the top we were not only be rewarded with a beautiful view of the park, but also of the snow-capped Mount Shasta to the north, the first of the Cascade range.  I thought this hike was unique, and some what scary, for another reason.  To reach the summit, we had to hike over sections of wet slippery snow.  As I said before, this is in July.  As a Florida girl, I am always captivated by snow in whatever way I get to play with it.  This was the first time I got to hike in it.  Despite the presence of snow, the ascent and summit were rather warm.  I was wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, as can be seen in photos below.  The only time I was even close to chilly was when I laid down in the snow.  While Lassen Peak requires some gumption to ascend, the summit it worth the effort.  

Hiking across snow fields to the summit of Lassen Peak on the 4th of July. 

Cooling off on the summit of Lassen Peak.  The snow covered summit of Mount Shasta can be seen in the distance.

We exited the park through the north entrance, stopping on the way at the largest campground in the park to clean up in the coin-operated showers and to buy some ice cream at the visitors' center.  One more great thing about our time in Lassen was how affordable it was.  All four of us shared one campsite that cost $15 a night to rent.  I reserved it online a couple of weeks before the trip.  Other than the park entrance fee, $10 for a week, we only had to pay for food that we cooked at our campsite and gas for the car.  For anyone on a budget living in California/Oregon/Nevada, Lassen offers an affordable vacation.  

Aside from the snow which keeps many areas of the park closed until deep into summer, the extreme heat Lassen experienced during our stay caused thunderstorms which seemed to appear within minutes.  I learned the lesson that when in Lassen prepare for any weather. 

A thunderstorm that surprised us on our hike to Cinder Cone.

So Why Not visit Lassen Volcanic National Park?

Have a national park you especially love?  Post it in the comments section below.