Sierra-Cascade Trip: Lassen National Park

Lassen is a little-used national park in the mountains east of Redding, Californina. Instituted as a park after Lassen peak erupted in 1915, the eruption was well photographed by a local businessman, and created a national sensation. It was similar to the Mt. St Helen's eruption in 1980 and created a dramatic landscape. We arrived to hear that the road through the park wouldn't open until tomorrow, and our cabin was on the other side. They've had lots of snow in the Sierras this year, almost twice normal and banks were still deep in mid July. We decided to go in as far as we were allowed and see what we could, then drive around. 

Even at peak afternoon hours, there were only a few cars out. Just as we pulled into the last open parking lot, a ranger stood opening the road gate - they were opening 12 hours early. Our string of good luck continued. It was dramatic crossing the pass at 6,000 feet between 15 foot banks. At the base of Lassen peak, the restrooms were still over-topped in snow. More dramatic views,  roads on the edge, a hike in the devastated region created when the entire side of Lassen peak collapsed and roared across the valley following an eruption, and we arrived at our cabin on the north side of the park. 

Very cute, and new this year. A bedroom with two bunks, a heater, a sitting room, and a porch, fire ring, and bear cabinet. We hiked the Manzanita Lake loop during the daytime, cooked dinner on the camp stove, then hiked the loop again, which provided numerous reflected views of Lassen peak and the surrounding snow tipped mountains as the sun set and the moon rose, then to bed in our sleeping bags. I got up before dawn and walked the loop again to watch the sunrise on the peaks.

Later that morning we hiked to Crags Lake below Chaos Crags (great names here, again the legacy of commercial tourism in the past). It was a moderate hike along Manzanita Creek, up the edge of the Chaos Jumbles, the down s short, steep descent to the small, topaz blue Crags Lake. 

We found Lassen to be a beautiful, lightly used park. Maybe not as dramatic as Yosemite or Crater Lake, but  beautiful in its own recently volcanic way. Well worth a stop if you're in the region. 

We decided it would be worth the drive north to Crater Lake National Park in the time we had left to complete our volcano tour. So we broke camp after breakfast and headed north.






https://picasaweb.google.com/jbp1111/LassenJul2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLKxgqad1ozPKw