Lassen Volcanic National Park and On Towards Reno

Friday, September 26, 2014

Hoping that the road would be open through the park after more foul weather the night before, we got an early start. Greg checked with the ranger who assured us it was open and “should be gorgeous up there”. The temperature was slowly climbing to 40 degrees. We thought we might hike, but the cold and snow discouraged us. We did a few short hikes at overlooks, and admired Lassen Peak with its vanilla frosting. The 30 mile road was beautiful and fairly empty as we drove up to the Lassen Peak viewpoint at 8,500'. The mountain itself is 10,457', so the viewpoint allows you to take a five mile trail to the very top. Not too many people trying it today. We declined, too.

Lassen Peak in the snow

Looking east across the national park

Climbing above the snow line, about 7,500 feet

Lake Helen and Lassen Peak

Hiking trail up Lassen Peak

Greg's Commentary – Lassen Volcanic National Park is the southernmost of the seven key volcanoes (among hundreds of smaller volcanoes) in the Cascade Range that extends from northern California into British Columbia. Lassen Peak is the largest plug dome in the world and is the remnant of a large composite volcano that blew up and collapsed 200-some thousand years ago. Other well developed volcanic features in the park include several active geothermal areas, a very recent cinder cone, the 100 year-old dacite ash eruption and avalanche of the Devastated Area on the flank of Lassen Peak, the ryolite rubble avalanche at Chaos Crags, and fascinating historical photographs from the 1914 and 1915 eruptions that mesmerized the entire country.

Lassen Museum

Original seismograph from 1927

The Hot Rock thrown 3 miles from the 1914 eruption and still hot three days later. About 45 degrees now.

Dacite boulders ranging in age from 27,000 to 100 years

"Puzzle" rock fractured in place while cooling

Looking down into the Bumpass Hell geothermal area and Brokeoff Mountain

High resolution (1.0 millimeter) GPS station to detect earth inflation due to magma movement.

Glacial erratic boulder on glacier-polished dacite bedrock. Look out Greg!

Boiling mud at the Sulfur Works

Sulfur Works steam vents. Easy access right on road.

We had a brief, but beautiful visit to Lassen, and by noon we were on our way out of the park and headed east again. Slowly we descended to the desert of the Basin and Range on the east side of the mountains and at Susanville began to turn towards Reno. Our route across northern California took us intentionally away from the fire areas. We went south of Mt. Shasta and north and east of the huge King Fire west of Lake Tahoe. The storm that came through seems to have dampened the fire some, and cleared the air, so we expect better air quality when we reach Reno tomorrow. For now we are holed up in a small Plumas National Forest Service campground called Laufman in the mountains southeast of Susanville, California. In the morning we'll leave for Reno. For now we are enjoying the peace and quiet in this six site, free campground with only one tenter up the hill from us. We have ponderosa pines, quaking aspens, stellar jays, and a herd of wild turkeys nearby.

Free USFS campsite in the quaking aspens

Sunday morning update - Yesterday took us to Reno and we spent the afternoon in the Walmart parking lot setting up our new phones. Then we drove to Washoe Lake State Park and sat through more rain last night. Three nights straight of rain after trying to get away from the coastal rain. It followed us here, of course. But, the upside is that it is helping to extinguish the huge King Fire on the other side of Lake Tahoe from us. And this whole region is in drought and desperate for rain. Today we are set up for boondocking. Lots of water, fuel, food, and our waste tanks will be empty, so we are heading down to the Mono Lake area and see if we can get our previous boondock spot on Rush Creek overlooking the lake. Hoping for warmer, drier temperatures!

Looking east at Honey Lake in the Basin and Range