Park Unit 62: Lassen Volcanic National Park

7/24/15. Wow, what an amazing park! We started off this morning walking up to the  "Sulphur Works" which are boiling mud pots by the side of the road. These were just incredible - like right out of a movie.  Here's a video of what it looked like:

The smell of sulphur and the hot steam were overwhelming.





Next we hiked up to Bumpass Hell Overlook. This was a 4 mile trail that was very challenging, especially at 8,000 ft. Although it was hard to breath and strenuous, the view of the steaming hydro-thermal area was worth it! The temperature of high-velocity steam jetting from Big Boiler, the largest fumarole in the park, has been measured as high as 322°F (161°C), making it one of the hottest fumaroles in the world.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving to other areas of the park and we had a lovely picnic lunch beside one of the mountain lakes. The sky during the whole day was a deep, deep clear blue without a single cloud. The air, although thin to breath, was clear, refreshing and very cool. There were many wildflowers in bloom and stunning views everywhere. This park is so pretty it must be where they must shoot the photographs for jigsaw puzzles and calendars!

After lunch we drove through the "Devastated Area" where one of the volcanoes erupted in 1914. The lava rocks were fascinating!

This shows the volcano in the distance and the rock that was thrown miles away.

Late in the afternoon, we went to the far side of the park to hike up to Cinder Cone and the Fantastic Lava Beds. The lava beds were a huge wall of broken chunks of rock that had spewed from the volcano hundreds of years ago.

This area was once a National Monument on its own, but were later incorporated into Lassen National Park when that was created. This cinder cone volcano looked like the surface of the moon and the whole area had the feel of outer space. It just didn't look real. We hiked to the bottom of the cinder cone, then Jason went on his own about a 3rd of the way up the extremely steep path. He vowed to return one day to get all the way to the top.

Here's a view from the path up the cinder cone that Jason took:

We left the park at dusk, completely exhausted, filthy with volcanic ash and dust, and thoroughly amazed at the beauty of this wilderness.