If I Were Going...: California, Here We Come – Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Peak flanked by a beautiful stream and meadow

Our next scheduled stop was Lassen Volcanic National Park, which we had visited in 2012 after visiting the San Juan Islands. Back then, we were originally supposed to arrive, just for the day, on June 1. But, a change in plans put us there on May 31. No big deal, right? Well, actually, it was because the road through the park opened on June 1. So, we could see only one side.

It was much snowier in May 2012

I thought it would be nice to go back and see the whole park but we almost didn’t because Scott didn’t remember the Park and wasn’t too keen on it. We debated changing plans, but we had an inexpensive camping spot reserved for the night. Lassen Volcanic was right on the way to Crater Lake, our next stop, and we didn't have a better option. So, on to Lassen Volcanic.

Great decision!

First, the campsite was nice ...

Our HUGE campsite in the Mazanita Lake Campground

Second, the weather was gorgeous – and the sky incredibly clear for California ...

A perfect day

Third, the Park is gorgeous …

Impressive views

... really gorgeous ...

Ice and turquoise water

… truly gorgeous ...

Wildflower studded hillsides

And, fourth, the clear skies and remoteness gave us our best night sky photos of the trip ...

Milky Way over the Chaos Crags

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Located in northeastern California, Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the few areas in the world where all four types of volcano can be found: plug dome, shield, cinder cone and stratovolcano. The Park is dominated by Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano in the world and the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range. Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate National Monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907: Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument.

A calming vista

European immigrants in the mid-19th century used Lassen Peak as a landmark on their way to the fertile Sacramento Valley in northern California.

The Peak’s namesake was a Danish blacksmith named Peter Lassen, who acted as a guide and settled in Northern California in the 1830s.

The source of heat for the volcanism in the Lassen area is subduction of the Gorda Plate diving below the North American Plate off the Northern California coast. The area surrounding Lassen Peak is still active with boiling mud pots, fumaroles and hot springs.

Native Americans have inhabited the area since long before white settlers first saw Lassen. The natives knew that the peak was full of fire and water and thought it would one day blow itself apart (who knows, it still could).

A rough landscape

Newspaper accounts reported by witnesses from 1850 to 1851 described seeing "fire thrown to a terrible height" and "burning lava running down the sides" in the area of Cinder Cone. As late as 1859, a witness reported seeing fire in the sky from a distance, attributing it to an eruption.

Early geologists and volcanologists who studied the Cinder Cone concluded the last eruption occurred between 1675 and 1700.

After the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began reassessing the potential risk of other active volcanic areas in the Cascade Range. Further study of Cinder Cone estimated the last eruption occurred between 1630 and 1670. Recent tree-ring analysis has placed the date at 1666. So, maybe those 1850s-era settlers saw UFOs?

Collapsed volcano above Summit Lake

Starting in May 1914 and lasting until 1921, a series of minor to major eruptions occurred on Lassen, creating a new crater and releasing lava and ash. Fortunately, because of warnings, no one was killed, but several houses along area creeks were destroyed. Because of the eruptive activity, which continued through 1917, and the area's stark volcanic beauty, Lassen Peak, Cinder Cone and the area surrounding were declared a National Park in 1916.

High elevation maintains a wintery look

The 29-mile Main Park Road was constructed between 1925 and 1931, just 10 years after Lassen Peak erupted.

Near Lassen Peak, the road reaches an elevation of 8,512 feet, making it the highest road in the Cascade Mountains.

It is not unusual for 40 ft. of snow to accumulate on the road near Lake Helen and for patches of snow to last into July. And, that's why it doesn't open until June!

In 1972, a portion of the park was designated as Lassen Volcanic Wilderness by Congress. In 1974, the National Park Service took the advice of the USGS and closed a Visitor Center and accommodations at Manzanita Lake because the buildings would be in the way of a rockslide from Chaos Crags if an earthquake or eruption occurred in the area. There is still a campground, store and museum there. That’s where our spacious shaded campsite was (why were the best ones the ones we booked for one night or found by mistake?).

Our campsite

The eastern part of the Park, where we visited in 2012, is a vast lava plateau more than one mile above sea level dotted with small cinder cones. Forested with pine and fir, this area is studded with small lakes, but it boasts few streams.

Lassen wildflowers

The western part of the park features great lava pinnacles (huge mountains created by lava flows), jagged craters and steaming sulfur vents.

It is cut by glaciated canyons and is dotted and threaded by lakes and rushing clear streams.

When we were there, it was also blanketed with beautiful yellow and purple wildflowers (my two favorite flower colors!).

There are four shield volcanoes in the park: Mount Harkness (southwest corner of the park), Red Mountain (at south-central boundary), Prospect Peak (in northeast corner) and Raker Peak (north of Lassen Peak). All of these volcanoes are 7,000-8,400 feet above sea level and each is topped by a cinder cone volcano.

Roughly 27,000 years ago, Lassen Peak started to form and, as the lava dome pushed its way up, it shattered overlaying rock, which formed a blanket of talus around the emerging volcano. Lassen reached its present height in as little as a few years. Lassen Peak has also been partially eroded by Ice Age glaciers, at least one of which extended as much as seven miles from the volcano itself.

Lassen Peak

Since then, smaller domes formed around Lassen. The largest of these, Chaos Crags, is just north of Lassen Peak.

Chaos Crags

Lassen Peak is made of dacite, an igneous rock, and is the southernmost non-extinct volcano of the Cascade Range. The 10,457-foot volcano sits on the north-east flank of the remains of Mount Tehama (also known as Brokeoff Mountain), a stratovolcano that was at one time 1,000 feet higher than Lassen and 11 to 15 miles wide at its base.

Brokeoff Mountain

After emptying its magma chamber in a series of eruptions, Tehama either collapsed into itself or was eroded away by acidic vapors and glaciers. Despite currently having no glaciers, Lassen Peak has 14 permanent snowfields.

Not quite glaciers, snowfields

Geothermal Sites

The Sulphur Works geothermal area between Lassen Peak and Brokeoff Mountain is thought to mark an area near the center of Tehama's now-gone cone. This is the only Park geothermal area accessible by car.

The Sulphur Works

The Sulphur Works isn't just a cute name; the area was actually a commercial sulphur mine. In 1865, Mathias Supan, an entrepreneur from Austria, started mining sulfur mining to be used in a variety of commercial and medicinal products. Then, to boost profitability, his heirs operated mineral baths, a restaurant and a souvenir shop. The National Park Service "acquired" Sulphur Works in 1952, 33 years after Lassen was became a National Park. The acquisition was possible because the government condemned the land and then seized it for a court-determined price.

Mud pot

Sulphur Works features a wide boiling mud pot right next to the sidewalk. Across the street is a steaming fumarole stained yellow, orange and red. The whole thing smells like rotten eggs.

The heat source for the Sulphur Works is Tehama's magma chamber, about five miles below the surface.

Water from rain and snow that falls on the highlands of the Park feed the hydrothermal system by percolating deep underground and being heated by the magma. The rising hot water boils to form boiling pools and mud pots. Super-heated steam reaches the surface through fractures in the earth to form fumaroles.

A section of the earth's crust began collapsing in 2006, and by 2008, the current mud pot was formed. In October, the mud pot dries out, only to reform as moisture accumulates below.

Algae grows in the warm pools

Other geothermal areas in the caldera are Little Hot Springs Valley, Diamond Point (an old lava conduit) and Bumpass Hell.

Critters
Species that are typically found in the Park include Black Bear, Red Fox, Mule Deer, Marten, Mountain Lion, Raccoon, Pika, Coyote, Bobcat, Weasel, Long-toed Salamander, Skunk and a variety of mouse, bat, chipmunk and squirrel species.

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel with chewed-up ears

The higher elevations were completely filled with California Tortoiseshell Butterflies, which I suspect were gathered to mate. They were zipping here and there without landing, but I finally got a few photos.