A long ride yesterday, through Carson Pass and down to Carson City, Nevada, through Reno, Nevada and back into California to travel across the northern border of Lassen Volcanic National Park to a KOA Mt. Lassen/Shingletown.
Today we went to the Lassen Volcanic National Park entering on the northwestern Manzanita Lake entrance. Our first stop was a section of the park known as the Devastated Area. From 1914 to May, 1915, Lassen spewed steam and ashes in more than 150 eruptions. On May 19, 1915, the mountain top exploded. Lava crashed through the 1914 crater and a 20 foot high wall of mud, ash, and melted snow roared down the mountain. Three days later, a huge mass of ashes and gases shot out of the volcano, devastating a swath a mile wide and three miles long. Since then, except for a small eruption in 1921, Lassen Peak has been quiet. The interpretative walk was an introduction to the types and ages of the dacite rock that are the dominant rock forms in the park.
Our next stop was to the Bumpass Hell Trail. The placed is named for Kendall Virgil Bumpass, a local guide, who in 1860s, while taking some tourists to visit the geothermal features, plunged a leg through the thin crust covering a mud pot ... A temperature of approximately 240 degrees ... And joked about his "easy descent into hell". Joking aside, he lost his leg from the burn damage.
The trail was only about 3 miles round trip, but descended into an area of active geothermal features ... Fumaroles, mud pots, hissing ponds of steaming, colorful water, streams of sulphur laden water. A bit of the Yellowstone experience on a smaller, more intimate scale ...
Lupines covered the hillsides ... I asked a Ranger if there was something specific about the soil to support these fields of lupines. He didn't really know the answer, but said that it was an amazing sight in the spring to see the flowers highlighted against the snow on the ground.
We drove down to the Kohm Yah-Nah-Mee Visitor's Center ... Watched the movie about the geology of the park ... And, got my souvenir magnet celebrating the 100th anniversary of the park in 2015.
Our return drive was marked by a mountain rainstorm followed by a mountain hailstorm (pea to marble size) ... The temperature change was dramatic. The hailstorm brought temperatures of 55 degrees ... By the time that we got back to Bambi, the temperature was 94 degrees ... A swing of 39 degrees.
"When you are in the mountains, the mountains are in you" ... John Muir
1 comment:
Yeah, the photos return, and the lupine especially is appreciated. Lassen was our "first" as a young married couple, and remains very special to us. Sorry we have been slow in catching up with Bambi as we would have recommended climbing the Cinder Cone and walking through some of the lava tubes. Also Birney Falls S.P. just north of Lassen. But I am really happy you were able to get to Lassen!
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