Lassen Volcanic National Park

Continuing on our marathon southeastern drive from Redding, after leaving Burney Falls, we headed south on Highway 89 to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  We had hoped to devote more than one day to this beautiful park, but the threat of imminent closure due to possible federal government shutdown on October 1st caused us to compress our visit into half a day.  By the time we had driven through the Park, we wished even more that we had had more time to see it.  The scenery is remarkable.

Our first stop was the complex at the north entrance, which includes a general store, campground and museum.  We walked over to Manzanita Lake and were greeted with this view of Mount Lassen:

The only real road through the Park is Highway 89, which runs north-south, but in the process wraps around the eastern flank of Mount Lassen.  This is the way we drove.  One of the roadside stops was the Hot Rock.  Here is David, trying to see if the rock is still hot.  It wasn't.

This big boulder is known as "Hot Rock" because it was ejected from Mount Lassen in the 1915 eruption and thrown 5 miles away to the spot where it presently sits.  The explanatory sign in front of David shows a photo taken a day or two after the boulder was ejected.  Here is the photo:

According to the photographer, when this photo was taken the boulder was still glowing hot and sizzling in the water in which it was sitting.  Aside from the fact that the rock has cooled, the entire area shown as devastated in the 1915 photo above has regrown and there is no view of Lassen from that spot as there had been right after the eruption.

Driving on, we proceeded up the flank of Mount Lassen, toward a high elevation of 8,500 feet.  Mount Lassen itself is just over 10,000 feet tall.  As we rose, the peak grew larger, but also less distinctive.  We also were driving around the south flank, and hence there was little snow left unmelted on the mountain.  Our first view of Lassen (above) had been of the north face, on which the peak still holds snow.

A number of very striking meadows are strewn throughout the Park, and many, many beautiful glacial lakes.  Here is the Upper Meadow, with Kings Creek burbling through it, under the regal gaze of Reading Peak:

Further up the flank of Lassen, we gazed at the peak over Lake Helen ---

--- then stopped at Emerald Lake to enjoy its deep green beauty:

As we descended and neared the south entrance, we passed this beautiful formation of colored sandstone, tuff and other volcanic material:

After that, it was a quick visit to the Visitor Center at the south entrance, a view of the park video, and an hour's ride home.  We celebrated the (very) long day with some really scrumptious Mexican food at La Fogata, near our RV park, got home and (burping) fell into bed.