5 nights and 4 days in Lassen Volcanic N.P

Lassen Volcanic N.P illustrates earth’s powerfull forces.Every rock originated from volcanoes and all four types-shield,composite,cinder cone and plug dome-can be found here.

The park is one of the larges plug volcanoes in the world.Its last eruptions were between 1914 and 1921.

It is a beautiful park with great vistas,alpine lakes,meadows ,creater and fantastic hikes, there is NO gas station in a radious of 40 miles…..so be prepaired.

As we planned to explore the park for 4 full days we chose a C.G in Mineral just 9 miles away from the South entrance to the park, it had full hook ups ,great sites but no internet and bad reception.

The fees to enter the park is $20 for 7 days unless for senior citizens holding Golden Eagle pass or similar .

 

On the first day we chose to hike Mill Creek Falls and Kings Creek Falls each one 3 Miles round trip.

 

Mill Creek falls hike is concedered to be moderate but there are some steep parts along the way.

As we hiked along the trail we met a hiker on his way back ,so we asked him is the falls are impressive ,his answer surprised us " I have hiked another mile from here and there is no falls...good luck to you" he said. Well what does one do after such and answer? we thought a minute and just went on for another 10 minutes and saw what the hiker missed-this high beautiful waterfall.

The Kings Creek waterfall is more difficult hike but never the less worth going to.

  

On the way back we stoped to have a picnic near Lake Helen just near Emerald lake .

On and to the hikes we passed outstanding view points and it was hard to make a curve without taking a peek at the scenery, amazingly the park was not crowded even during the weekend .

 

On the 2nd we hiked the Cinder Cone ,a 4 Mile round trip the top of the volcano, but to get to the trail head we had to take a long drive around the East side of the park through Chester .

The way up is very steep and the surface is soft , so each step you make you slide a bit down...that makes it even more diffucult.

 

It took us an hour and a half to reach the top and that is what we saw when we got there- it was worth every step going up with no shade at all.

 

 

Breathtaking scenery ,some looks like painting- the way down took us only 20 minutes…

 

At the North Entrance to the park there is a beautiful Manzanita lake ,a campground and a visitor center.

It took us 2 hours to drive through the whole park to reach the lake with some stops on the way.

 

There are many hikes in the park and one can spend many days covering them all but we chose on the last day to hike to Bumpass Hell , a short hike of 2 Miles to an area full of boiling mudpots,steaming grounds and sulfurous gases, reminding in a way the Yellowstone N.P but this one is much more concentrated.

How about cooling the beer in mid August at 8400 ‘??? excellent spot to cool off after a long hike.

We are leaving this amazing park with a promise to come again…