California 2025-Lassen Volcanic NP

July 8th 

I woke up bright and early to watch the sunrise (along with what felt like a million mosquito friends). I spent the morning going in and out of the lodge to avoid my lovely friends while trying to get a pretty sunrise picture!

Lots of mule deer roaming around.

We took Dave around the majority of the loop before heading back south.

We passed Mt. Shasta along the drive.

We stopped at Burney Falls-this was one heck of a waterfall!

Another quick stop-Subway Cave Lava Tubes. I absolutely loved this-how cool that lava flowed through these "caves". The kids were freaked out because it was pitch black in there!

 

From here we went into Lassen Volcanic NP to do a short trail around Manzanita Lake before heading to our home for two nights in Shingletown.

Mt. Lassen

This was in our backyard off of the deck. This area was so peaceful! At this point we were done for the night and settled in to rest for the next day!

July 9th 

We always listen to the Guide Along app when we are touring national parks and he told us to stop at the Devastated Area Loop Trail. This was so cool, it showed giant rocks and other landscape features from when Lassen erupted in the early 1900s.

Lake Helen

The main hike we wanted to go on was to Bumpass Hell but the trailhead was completely shut down because of snow drifts. Don't worry we found a way later!

So much snow! It seriously looked like winter, and up at this point was around 55 degrees out.

We found out from the visitor center that you could get to Bumpass Hell from another trail, it just added about 4 miles! We decided to give it a try and whew that was an adventure. Hiked out from the Kings Creek trailhead and traipsed up a mountain to get there finally.

This is part of the Cold Boiling Lake which was honestly not very impressive. This was pretty though!

I am pretty sure this is Crumbaugh Lake-we only saw it from above. It was so blue!

There were definitely times this hike felt treacherous. At one point the boys about had enough but we convinced them to keep going. I'm so glad they did, the end was worth it!

It was kind of like a small version of Yellowstone thermal features. Smelled very strongly of sulphur and hot lots of bubbling stuff.

Quick selfie along the hike.

The kids wanted to check out Manzanita lake again (Dave was hoping to kayak but that was shutting down as we got there). Ike swam for a bit and Josh and Dave hung out with these strangely friendly geese.

We were exhausted and starving (major theme from this trip!) so we stopped to get pizza at Pioneer Hillside Pizza. Well half of us got pizza and half got burgers. Overall it was pretty good considering it was one of the only restaurants in town! And that concluded our National Parks of Northern California/Oregon loop. Back to Pleasanton and San Francisco!