Travel dates: July 1, 2017
The party line on Lassen Volcanic National Park is that it’s a hidden gem–an amazing but underappreciated spot where one can go to soak up natural wonders while escaping the crowds. Lassen Peak itself is a huge plug dome volcano which erupted most recently in 1915. The park is one of the few places in the world where you can find examples of all four kinds of volcanoes (plug dome, plus cinder cone, shield and strato), so Yellowstone-like thermal features abound. Throw in picturesque lakes, great hiking trails, idyllic fields full of wildflowers and all that, and you have yourself a great National Park.
Well. We found that if you go to Lassen on 4th of July weekend–and if much of the park is still inaccessible after an especially snowy winter–you’ll be sharing what natural wonders you can get to with plenty of other people.
But, still. This:
The main road through the park stretches for 30 miles between the northwest entrance, where you’ll find Manzanita Lake and the Loomis Museum, and the southwest entrance, where you’ll find the Kohm Yah-mah-nee visitor center and (a little farther into the park) the well-known thermal area, Bumpass Hell and Lassen Peak itself. In between, the road twists and turns and climbs up to 8500 feet. The area sees a lot of snow in winter, so the road is impassible for much of the year. The website advises that if you’re traveling between October and June, you should check road conditions before you arrive.
We were there July 1. The road through the park didn’t fully open in 2017 until July 26.
So this was a stroke of extreme bad luck on our part. The website lists the opening date for every year since 1980, and July 26 is the latest by far. There have only been six other years when the road was still closed on July 1.
We stayed at the KOA near the northwest entrance (fabulous KOA; review coming soon!) We’d heard great things about the visitor center near the southwest entrance, but going there would have required a very long drive around the park AND the Bumpass Hell trail near that visitor center wasn’t open yet, either. So we opted to stick with what we could see in the northern part of the park, where the road and facilities were open down to the Devastated Area.
Parking was in short supply at the Loomis museum and visitor center, but we managed to find a spot and spend a little time checking out the museum. Note: Abe was not in the best of moods on this day. We didn’t even manage to get a Junior Ranger badge, and that almost never happens.
Dave’s parents joined us for this stop, so with them and Dave’s sister’s family along, we had a group of twelve altogether. We set off in search of a nice, all ages friendly hike, and we found it in the Manzanita Lake Trail. This trail starts at the Manzanita Lake picnic area and loops around the lake, given you some really great views along the way. It’s under 2 miles, and pretty much level the whole way.
There were a lot of people out on the lake in kayaks and canoes and paddleboards. Amy and Craig thought about renting some, but ended up deciding against it (we were definitely not taking grumpy Abe anywhere we couldn’t easily escape from). But it looked like this would be a really pleasant spot for that.
The kids found a fallen tree to walk out on, and no one fell in the lake! Woot!
After the hike, we went back to the picnic area for lunch and then headed farther into the park to see what else wasn’t still covered with snow.
Like Hot Rock, the minivan sized rock that was carried down to its current spot by lava flow when Lassen Peak last erupted in 1915. The kids had fun climbing all over it, because what’s not to love about climbing on a minivan sized rock that a volcano deposited right by the side of the road for you only 100 years ago?
Next we drove to the Devastated Area, where there’s a short interpretive walk with lots of signs telling you about all the, well….devastation that happened here when the volcano erupted. Devastated Area is a really great name for an….area, and it was an interesting little walk with more impressive views:
And that was as far as we could go without skis or snowshoes.
We felt reluctant to leave Lassen without seeing more of it, but we also had some tired kids, an ice cream social waiting for us back at the campground, and, of course, a limited selection of non-snow covered things left to see anyway. So we headed back to the campground by mid-afternoon, resolving–as usual–to make it back sometime in the future to see more.
On the way back to the campground, a bear cub ran right in front of our car–like, slamming on the brakes or we might have hit him kind of right in front–which was perhaps our most impressive wildlife sighting of the entire trip. It was at least the most exciting.
Next up I’ll review the awesome KOA near the park!
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Devastated Area is indeed an excellent name.
I can tell that if anyone _had_ fallen into the lake, you were ready to record the event.
I’m ALWAYS ready to record all the events!
Awesome. We are headed there in June. Now I need to check this years snowfall.
I think the east coast got the crazy snowfall this year, so maybe you’ll have better luck!