4 masks up for lassen national park in northern california . i have so much to say about this trip that i am rolling out a multi-part series answering various questions about the area including. click here to see the other posts. today’s question is
why might i want to go to lassen volcanic national park in northern california?
basically if you like to see amazing natural wonders and you want to escape your pandemic drudgery, this is a great place to be. i grew up in southern california and have lived sacramento (the largest city in short driving distance of lassen) since 1997 and i only just went there for the first time last month. i can’t even begin to explain what took me so long. i’m so glad my husband suggested it.
wow. wow. wow. it takes a little over three hours to drive there from sacramento, longer from the san francisco bay area. i’m not going to try to tell you the whole story of lassen volcanic national park but a few intriguing details:
- despite it’s location, it’s not in the high sierra mountain range or any other range of mountains. it is its own volcanic range!
- the volcano that created lassen was only 100 years ago!
- it is still an active volcano where you can see boiling lakes, geysers shooting up and all sort of cool rock formations and craters!
- every single rock in the park is volcanic!
if these tidbits don’t excite you, this is probably not a good destination for you. but they excite me. even if you’re not a hiker, if you have the time the drive through the park is well worth it. do yourself a favor and stop and stretch your legs at the geyser right next to the road and look at stuff outside the visitor center.
lassen peak. we climbed lassen peak, which is only 5 miles round trip but at 10,000 feet of elevation and being quite steep in slope is definitely quite strenuous. i’ve gotten used to pooh-poohing the “strenuous” warnings on national park trail descriptions because my sense is that they tend to inflate it so that they can rescue fewer people. this time, i’d say they’re accurate. there were many times on the trail that i was tempted to turn back. i made it to what many called the peak and certainly had great views. my husband, along with some others, trudged on through snow up another steep promenade to what he asserted was an even more dramatic panorama.
the trail up lassen peak is a narrow trail and in the middle of a pandemic summer i had to keep my mask very handy. some people wore theirs the whole time. i felt like my breath was already a little strained with the thin air so i only put it on when i couldn’t step 6 feet away or turn my back to the trail. i turned my back a lot. a solid percentage of the people on the trail never appeared to wear a mask though so I’m taking off a mask from the rating for that.
at juniper lake, you only need a mask in the restroom. a couple of days after climbing lassen peak, we drove to juniper lake on the recommendation of a friend. to our surprise, juniper lake is also in the national park—the trip involves 10-20 bumpy minutes along a vaguely improved gravel road through an unstaffed entrance to the park. juniper lake is amazing though–just a perfect blue mountain lake with great beaches and a dirt road that you can walk or drive all the way around. there are houses there, inside the park. you can camp next to the lake. we walked .6 miles to “inspiration point”—a wonderful view of the park, almost as good as lassen peak but a lot less effort. there’s also a loop of lakes to hike to (and backpack to) there starting with horseshoe lake. women returning to juniper with packs pronounced it beautiful and an easy hike with no elevation gain. they said their were fewer people camping at the lake after that, some 3 miles on.
so many people in california plan big family trips to wyoming to yellowstone national park to see old faithful or the big island in hawaii to see the volcano. how many might want to start with lassen volcanic park, especially now.
