Lassen Volcanic National Park

6/29/18 - Mineral, California

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Lassen is home to steaming fumaroles and all four types of volcanoes. (Who knew there were four different types?) The picturesque road through the park winds around and through several old volcanoes, while going from an elevation of 6,700' to a high of 8,512'. Several great views of Lassen Peak at 10,457'.

Lassen Peak. The second picture is a closer look at a rock outcropping near the peak. Note the circular formation in the rock that some people imaginatively call Vulcan's Eye.

A few other volcanic cones in the park. Everywhere you looked in this park you could see pointy mountain tops. In one place the road went through the remnants of a huge caldera and you could look up to see about 75% of the caldera walls surrounding you.

We were at a high enough altitude that even on a warm day in late June, there were still patches of snow next to the road, as Lois proved in her sandals.

Two small lakes just a mile or two apart near Lassen Peak. The lake on the left is called Emerald Lake, so named because it's very shallow and contains a lot of green algae. On the right is Sapphire Lake, where the water is very deep and that depth gives it the distinctive blue color.

The Lassen park includes some trails that were used by covered wagons in the 1850's and 1860's. The picture on the left is of one of those trails. These trails had to wind around to avoid the ubiquitous "cinders". A cinder is blob of lava - often car-sized - that were violently blown out of the top of the cinder cone volcanoes. Throughout the park, and for 10 miles alongside the road into the park, every piece of flat land was pock-marked by these lava boulders.

A nice view of Lassen Peak from Kings Creek Meadow.