Lassen Volcanic National Park Photos

A Writer's Adventures Backpacking in Lassen: A Deer, and a Sulfur Lake, and a Bear (Oh My!)

Lassen Park Hike: Day 3 (August 4)

Route: Corral Meadows to Warren Valley to Drakesbad Ranch to Boiling Spring Lake

Miles Hiked: 6.49

Total Miles for Entire Trip: 24.2

We hiked up and over Flatiron Ridge today. Despite its name, it wasn’t flat at all. Though it wasn't nearly as difficult to make it over as "My Mountain" that I climbed last year. On our way down the mountain, we actually stumbled upon a black bear (possibly the one we’d missed seeing the day before). I saw it and immediately froze in place on the trail, hissing up at my dad to look (he was far enough behind me that he couldn’t immediately see why I had stopped). It looked up at me for a few minutes, and our eyes met as I quickly snapped a few photos and then activated video mode. Then, it returned to tearing apart the tree stump between its paws before finally ambling off. I have never been so happy to be rejected as completely uninteresting.

We relaxed and ate lunch at Drakesbad Ranch where a lodgepole chipmunk nipped my ankle and then tugged on my shirt when I almost smooshed him by scooting back in my chair while I was eating outside. He was obviously used to sneaking food from the diners on the patio and not happy that I refused to oblige him. A gray squirrel also tried to get to the food in our packs while we were eating. Luckily, some other hikers had left food in a plastic bag next to their packs and the squirrel decided that would be better pickings.

Then, as we had time and were feeling refreshed, we hiked up to the thermal springs at Boiling Spring Lake. The springs were amazing, even though we had to view them from quite a distance. The ground close to the springs was so fragile and brittle that it was liable to break beneath you and I didn't really relish to finding myself plummeting into an acid bath no matter how much dirt I'd caked on.

 

On the way back from the lake of sulfuric acid that was created by the springs, we ran across a doe and her two baby fauns. The mama was focused solely on eating bark from the fallen trees, but the babies were having fun frolicking about in the grass only about ten feet from us. Sadly, the camera lost those photos and some of the far side of the lake and Lassen Peak, but I clearly remember the painted dirt of the lake shores, which reminded me a lot of the painted desert in Arizona that we visited when I was younger.

In all, we hiked over 20 miles in three days, just to see some boiling mud. And I’d do it all again. It was totally worth it.

Spotted Today: three fence lizards, a marmot (Dad saw it; I missed it), Swallow (probably of the barn variety), lodgepole chipmunk, a squirrel (who tried to get into my pack), a doe and two fauns, a black bear (obviously a California black bear, its hair was bleached out to a light cinnamon honey blonde), incense cedar tree

A Writer's Adventures Backpacking in Lassen: The Trek Continues (Or, The Day We Almost Saw a Bear, But Didn't)

Lassen National Park Hike: Day 2 (August 3)

Current Location: Emigrant Trail on the shores of Cluster Lake

I was awakened in the morning by a ground squirrel perched on a tree next to my bivy angrily scolding me for invading his space. At least that’s how it seemed to me at 6 am. Just as Dad and I were getting up and starting to get dressed for the day, a faun crept into our campsite. He tiptoed around the perimeter as if gauging our reaction or threat level. He would turn away as if to leave and then return to hover. As if he was thinking to himself, “I really like eating at that one tree over there, but there are strange creatures near it. But I really, really wanted to eat breakfast at that tree.” In the end, he ruled us harmless and even when we moved about, finishing our morning ablutions and making breakfast (hot cocoa and oatmeal with raisins, almonds, and apples for me), he hung around. First eating bark off his favorite tree; then watching us. Then pooping. As I wrote this, he was still there, circling the campsite, observing us. Apparently, we had made a friend for life.

Later on that day: Somewhere along the Pacific Crest Trail

Miles hiked: 6.3 (9 am to 12:30 pm)

We stopped for lunch (finally) and the place was swarming with mosquitoes. Thank goodness for my bug net. I almost wished I had the body bag as well. I unintentionally spiced up my lunch of salami and cheddar with a bit of dirt and made one ant very happy.

We crossed the highest point of the PCT that morning. Throughout the park, there were few rocks and it was more difficult to find good resting places or water sources than in Yosemite. Today was much hotter than yesterday and I had to strip down to shorts and t-shirt.

Mosquito Fun Facts:

• Only females bite
• Human blood allows them to lay about a thousand more eggs than otherwise

My Own Mosquito Observations:

• They somehow manage to swarm and bite even while I’m moving

Miles Hiked: 2.5 (1 pm to 3 pm)

Today’s campsite was much better than yesterday’s. It even had a table and chairs! It was very good that we found this site because if we hadn't stopped hiking then, we’d have been where Mom was supposed to pick us up tonight instead of tomorrow. We decided we'd definitely need to do a side trip tomorrow as we were only 2.5 miles from the rendezvous point and sitting around in the campsite for four hours would be dull indeed.

Today we encountered six people, all of whom seemed to be intent upon hiking a huge percentage of the PCT. One pair was talking about hiking 25 to 30 miles each day. So not me. Another guy was carrying a small guitar or ukulele on his pack.

After lunch, we came upon two guys ahead on the trail who were behaving quite strangely. We approached them cautiously and didn't realize that they were acting that way because there was a black bear just off the trail as the trees had blocked our view. Dad was hoping we might stumble across it again as we continued to hike along the river, but I was more ambivalent. On the one hand, it would be extremely COOL to get a photo of a bear in the wild. On the other, it’d be totally UNCOOL to get attacked or eaten by a bear. And I wasn't completely convinced that the latter would not be the result of any ursine encounter of which I was part.

Just before we stumbled upon our awesome campsite, I finally spotted a marmot (my favorite animal from the area), but it was too well-shaded to get a good picture. We also saw a lot of copper butterflies dancing together and white butterflies with black dots that we hadn't seen yesterday.

Snowplant

We saw lots of pretty flowers today. We think we might have seen some spruce and fir trees as well. Dad saw a woodpecker and I spotted a hummingbird.There was also a really big bird that swooped across the trail too quickly for us to identify it.

Today, I decided that river water is MUCH better to drink than lake water. It’s colder and cleaner. I'm so glad our campsite has running water (as in a river running next to it) for us to drink and cook with. At our third log bridge of the day, we stopped and dangled our feet in the water before scaling the steep embankment. It was so cold that my feet almost went numb. But it made them feel so much better and I felt much cleaner than the day before.

Being out in nature reminds me that Mother Nature is a proponent of tough love. All around me is evidence of the cycle of life: dead trees, baby trees, mature trees.

Lassen Peak

The path today ranged from silty to packed earth to gravel. But mostly the latter, so I didn’t end up as dust-covered as yesterday. Also, the mosquitoes are gone! One guy we met on the trail said they were non-existent here and he was right.

One of my favorite parts of this campsite was that we could hear the river running since the campsite overlooked the river. The sound of rushing water was so soothing. Dad obviously agreed as he went to nap in the shade by it. This is my favorite part of camping. The simple enjoyment of being away from civilization and technology (the books and music that I brought don’t really count as they don’t place demands on my time the way phone calls and emails do, and they didn't act up or malfunction). Still, it was nice to know that tomorrow I would be able to shower and sleep in a real bed.

Dinner was fabulous (I had cheesy chicken and rice while Dad finally tried his chili) until my plastic bag sprang a leak and my food started to leak out. Luckily, Dad had more margaritas (moonshine-flavored this time) which made it seem slightly less important.

Spotted Today: Faun, woodpecker, hummingbird, ground squirrel, marmot, copper butterflies, black-spotted butterflies

A Writer's Adventures Backpacking in Lassen: An Extended Beginning (Or, The Day of the Butterflies)

Lassen National Park Hike: Day 1 (August 2)
Route: Emigrant Pass & Hwy 89 to Cluster Lake (Emigrant Pass was once a wagon trail. We also joined with the Pacific Crest Trail briefly).

Miles Hiked: 8.91 (12:30 pm to 6 pm)
Today, we walked through whole fields of mule’s ears, with the occasional Indian paintbrush. There were also lots of purple trumpet flowers along the sides of the path and some white flowers that looked like little clusters of stars and reminded me of the dandelions when they go to seed. These last must be very sweet and tasty as the butterflies loved them. There were also lots of tiny pink fuzzy flowers that liked to grow in the middle of the path.

There appeared to be three types of trees in this forest: Aspen, which have tissue paper leaves that fluttered and shimmered in the breeze, creating a very soothing sound; Ponderosa pine, which we encountered at Yosemite last summer; and Jeffrey pine, which, if we’ve identified it correctly, have huge pine cones—many of them are larger than my dad's foot.

We had to hike more than a third of our total planned distance today before we finally got out of the “Restricted” area that we weren’t allowed to camp in. But down by Cluster Lake, good spots to camp were few and far between. Plus, fires were prohibited along the entire trail, so we couldn’t enjoy any campfires this year.

Today we passed a grand total of five people on the trail. The trail itself varied between silty sand and hard packed dirt. The trail was dry and dusty, so even though we’d only been trekking through the backcountry for less than six hours, I felt dirty and disgusting, and my feet and ankles were caked with dirt. We only had one river crossing today and I am proud to say that I managed not to fall in. (Though perhaps a dip would have helped with the dirt.)

There were numerous lakes in this part of the park, but very few rivers or creeks. It was more of a forested area, with fewer wide-open meadows, mountains, and rock formations than we saw at Yosemite last summer. The mountains were formed from volcanic rock and looked very different from the ones we saw at Yosemite. Much of what we hiked through early in the afternoon looked recently burned (which would explain the camping and campfire restrictions).

The afternoon was warm when the breezes died down, but otherwise quite pleasant. Later it finally cooled down, and I soon needed my coat. I couldn't wait to wash up after supper!

My dad made all of our freeze-dried food for the trip. Tonight I have chili (surprisingly good for freeze-dried meat) and Dad has Thai chicken curry. We also shared Mango Margaritas. (Boy did we need those after the trek and setting up the tents.) 

I used my new Google Sky phone app—yes, I brought my phone, iPod shuffle, and nook with me—to actually identify some constellations that evening, including Hercules. Outside of the city, the sky always amazes and fascinates me with how many stars one can see.

In addition to the upgraded food this year, we also had new one-person tents (Dad says it's a "bivy," not a tent, but it functions like a mini-tent and is much easier to pitch and take down) that have nets so we can see the sky while asleep, bug net headgear to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and I hada “go-girl” that I never did quite master. There is definitely an art to peeing while standing up.

Spotted Today: Ground squirrels (three or four), juncos (four or five), one nuthatch (a bird that walks up the trees), two stellar jays, two woodpeckers (which we heard, but couldn’t spot), lots of butterflies (including swallowtail, monarch, red admiral, larkin admiral, painted lady, and coppers)

A Preface: Getting There and Historical Tidbits

Reflection Lake View - Lassen Volcanic National Park, 1915

Mudflow - Loomis Volcanic National Park - B.F. Loomis Phot

Lassen National Park Hike: 
Day 0

The preparation for this year’s trip began with a two-hour search for my lightweight, zip-off pants. Apparently there is a gremlin living in my closet, because my pants had somehow found their way beneath all of my clean sheets and towels in the very back corner of my closet. This was not the most auspicious start for the trip. Luckily, the rest of the trip went a bit more smoothly (other than a few leaky food bags).

Lassen Peak in Light Eruption - B.F. Loomis, 1915

The most interesting part of Lassen’s history is that they didn’t originally know that Lassen Peak was a volcano. In fact, before the eruption of Lassen Peak in 1914, it was believed that there were no active volcanoes on the U.S. mainland. It was such a novel occurrence that people were actually trying to climb the mountain while it was erupting to see what was happening. One man, Benjamin F. Loomis managed to take a number of photos of the eruptions which are now on display at the park’s visitors center. The volcanic activity played a large part in the area surrounding the peak becoming the national park that exists today. For more information, I recommend Footprints in Time: A History of Lassen Volcanic National Park by Douglas H. Strong.