Texas Gypsies: Lassen Volcanic National Park

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Our adventure for today is exploring Lasses Volcanic National Park. I'm not sure what Tic was expecting,but I figured there would be lots of black lava rock. WRONG!

On our way to the northwest entrance of the park, we came upon the Hat Creek Valley Vista.

This is Hat Creek Valley from the Vista Point. In August 2009, 800+ bolts of lightening hit the valley causing 47 wildfires that burned 9356 acres.

Also from Hat Creek Valley Vista, we could see Lassen Peak which stands 10,457 ft tall. Obviously the top of Lassen Peak was in the clouds.

Here we are actually at the northwest entrance of the park.

Just inside the northwest entrance is Manzanita Lake. In the background is Lassen Peak. On our journey through the park we almost completely circle this peak. You will see several pictures of this peak from various different view points.

We saw this boulder all by itself and had to stop. It is called Hot Rock because it was ejected 5 miles away during the 1915 Lassen Peak eruption. Below I'm standing next to the rock for perspective.

The clouds started moving in over Lassen Peak. This peak is 10,457 ft in elevation.

We reached Summit Lake. It was very wet ground. These were growing everywhere.

This is looking at Summit Lake from the southwest side.

At Summit Lake we saw this pair of Canadian geese with a couple of babies. The babies looked a bit bigger than others we have seen.

Many of the trees and twigs on the ground had this green moss growing on them. When the sun shined on the moss it really looked florescent!

This tree had a medium covering of moss. We parked right next to it so that is the tree we took a picture of.

We are now at Kings Creek and Falls. It is about a mile hike to the falls so we decided to take it.

We are following the Kings Creek towards the falls. Isn't it beautiful!?!

Here is this part of the stream flowing. Love the sound of rushing water.

I asked Tic to take this picture to show that part of our trail was covered in soft snow. It made the trail a little harder to follow.

Here we get our first glimpse of the top of the falls.

Tic did a great job of getting the whole falls.

This shows a large part of the falls also. Can you see the creek at top of the picture. It's hard to tell the difference between the white rushing water and the snow.

Here's Lassen Peak from another view point.

The picture above this picture is zoomed in from this vantage point.

As we were headed up to the highest point in the park, we stopped and took this picture. From here you can see Twin Lakes.

Tic found this mountain interesting. One side is snow covered and the over side looks like it fell away.

Now we are at the roads highest point in the park. It is 8512 ft elevation. People are playing and sledding in the snow. The clouds are covering the top of Eagle Peak at 9222 ft elevation.

This is another part of the parking lot at the highest point in the park. Look how thick the snow is in places. You can tell people have been skiing on the snow also. We did see some folks walk into the parking lot carrying their skis. We missed seeing them ski down.

This overlook is called Bumpass Hell Vista. At this vista point this solar powered seismic equipment was set up to monitor plate movements in the area.

From this vista point, there is a trail that leads to Bumpass Hell. It is named that because in the valley there are a lot of hot springs. You can smell the sulfur in them.
Notice the snow top and left of center on the mountain. It may look like it is shadowed, but the snow is actually slightly brownish. We think it is probably from gases leaking out of that particular mountain. Apparently there is still lots of geothermal activity in this area of the park.

You can see the road we will be taking down off Bumpass Hell Vista.

As we came down we saw this interesting peak and learned it is called Diamond Peak, due to its shape. This peak is only 7968 ft elevation.

As we came down from Bumpass Hell Vista, we actually got a little closer to the mountain that had snow on one side and fell away on the other side. This is a closeup of the side that fell away. From this viewpoint we could also see the lone interesting rock at the top. We wondered also about the yellow in a section of the rocks. ??