Today was a HUGE day! We set our alarms for 5:15am and were on the road by 5:45 to head to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The drive started off slow and very, very curvy. Then we drove past really cute lake towns. And lastly we drove for hours through rolling yellow grassy mountains/hills. The entire drive took about 5 hours, but it was worth it!
After using our America the Beautiful pass to get in free, we grabbed info at the Visitor’s Center and headed out on the Lassen Scenic drive. This is a 30-mile road that takes you past all of the must-sees within this section of the park. Just one mile in was our first stop — Sulphur Works. Right along the road were these bubbling and smoking pits of clay that smelled like sulphur and were obviously very hot. It was honestly crazy how close they let us get to them! We walked along the path and took time to really watch them bubble.
One thing we immediately noticed was that the temperature was much cooler than we had expected. We both had on our ‘hot hiking” clothes — lightweight tanks and shorts. In none of our research did we realize that this park is at like 8000 feet elevation and therefore the air temp is quite cold for Florida girls. Luckily for us we were traveling with literally everything we had in the trunk, so we quickly unzipped our suitcases and changed into pants!
Next we stopped at Emerald Lake, which was really pretty but the sun wasn’t actually out for us, so the lake didn’t shine. We quickly kept going to the Bumpass Hell hike. Here we quickly grabbed our phones and fanny packs and headed out on the hike. In hindsight we 100% should have also grabbed water and a snack… but we didn’t really comprehend what type of hike we were heading out on so we were stupid. Very very stupid.
This ended up being a much longer (and harder) hike then we anticipated. It took us 2 hours and because the air was so dry and thin, we were parched. The hike itself was spectacular though. Like truly both of our favorite hikes EVER. Around every corner was another amazing vista — so much so that it became a bit comical how many photos we were taking. Kaia was particularly sucked in — gasping at every turn and grabbing her phone. It really was amazing though. We saw piles of snow, towering evergreens, snow-capped peaks in the distance and eventually the path led us down to this area that was powdery and chalky and then a boardwalk winding through massive sulphur bubbling pits. Everything was multicolored — milky water, aqua blue bubbling pits, white steam puffing out of vents and holes in the ground, neon green grasses and moss, yellow and red rocks. It was really amazing and extra special because at one point we had the entire boardwalk to ourselves!
Once we had spent more than enough time on the boardwalk, we had to climb our way up and then down to the carpark. It wasn’t as long or difficult going back (but it never is!) We used the bathrooms and immediately downed a bottle of water and a couple of slices of cold pizza!
Next we stopped at Lake Helen, which was sparkling blue and green in the sunlight and really pretty! We took a few pics and Kaia ran down to the edge to feel the water. This would have been a great picnic spot if we hadn’t already scarfed our food in the parking lot of Bumpess Hell! Lol So we kept driving and listening to our National Parks audio guide. This was a really nice addition because there were numbered signs along the drive and the audio tour would give us information about everything we were seeing, the history of the area, and details about the volcanic eruption.
Then we went to the Devastated Trail which was a very short and flat half-mile loop with signs along the way explaining what we were seeing and the history of the eruption. It was actually really cool! Right after we stopped at a roadside area that was part of the original wagon trail westward through California. There was a trail we could take and apparently there were still areas where the wagon ruts could still be seen in the ground — crazy!
Next was the Chaos Crags Viewpoint which ended up being one of our favorite spots! This was where there was a huge avalanche many years ago and the rocks traveled at such a high rate of speed that they actually trapped air beneath them. They created actual waves — like waves of rocks with some being 130 feet deep. It was amazing to see and they went on for about as far as we could see. The Crags themselves were really Rocky Mountains that sort of jutted up beneath the main Lassen Peak.
Lastly we stopped at Manzanita Lake. We planned on taking a short hike around the shore and just enjoying the viewpoint but we were really exhausted at this point, so we walked until we could see the lake and then stopped for a bit! The only interesting thing that happened was that we saw the lady walking in front of us almost get knocked out by a falling pine cone. This wasn’t a lightweight cone either, it was solid!! It unleashed a new worry for both of us as we walked back to the car.
The drive back to our Airbnb was about an hour, so not too bad. We did the bare minimum and crashed into our cozy beds.