Our First Trip to Lassen Volcanic Park

July 31, 2004

I was in the Bay area doing a summer internship. Aparna flew over from Los Angeles on the occasion of my Birthday on Friday evening. I had already reserved a rental car and used it to pick her up from the airport. However, no plans had been made as to where we should go. This internship was my first visit to the Bay area and the north bay was a completely unexplored region for me. As usual we opened the Rand McNally map and started to look for places to go that are not too far.

Then we found the Lassen volcanic national park, what attracted us was that we had never seen a Volcano before and it seemed fascinating. The park is about 250 miles from Daly City (I was staying with Mani these days), so it would probably take a little over 4 hours to reach there.

We started early next day, and took 280N, 101N,80E, 505N, 5N to reach red bluff. We had our lunch at Red Bluff and then took 36E and 89E to reach Lassen Volcanic National Park. There was a traffic Jam on 80E and it held us up for a long time.

We cuaght our first glimpse of the volcano even before entering the park. The Lassen Volcanic area is like entering a paradise, the scenery with three lush green coniferous trees, the valleys and the mountains is simply gorgeous - you have to be here to experience it.

As we drove through the entrance of the park there were steaming vents to greet us and we were fascinated immediately. There was a whizzing sound coming from some of the vents due to the steam rushing out!

As we drove further, our first stop was the Emerald lake - perhaps the most beautiful lake we had seen thus far (little did we know there was more to come). True to its name, the lake looks like liquified emerald due to all the reflections from the lush green coniferous trees. Aparna decided to pose like "Lassen Ki Kali" in front of the lake inspired from the old hindi film "Kasmir ki Kali".

Just a little ahead was yet another Gorgeous lake - Lake Helen. The Lassen volcano stands right behind the lake providing for the perhaps the most beautiful picture you can take in the park.

Close to Lake Helen is the first short hiking trail to Bumpass Hell - a large Geothermal area. Even in July there was still some snow here and the starting of the trail was snow covered. The views of the valley from the trail are absolutely breathtaking.

The trail itself is a moderate 1 mile hike and flat most of the way except for some minor climbs on the way. That's Aparna on the trail. The first view of Bumpass Hell is nothing like we had seen before. The view almost seems like an artist's painting with all those colors and the immaculate blue puddles of water. The water was boiling and bubbling in most of these puddles and there is a wodden trail that runs all around it. We could smell sulphur all the way up even before entering Bumpass Hell. The steam for the boiling puddles of watrer raises several tens of feet high and can be seen from far. Both of us obviously needed photos with Bumpass Hell in the background.

The ground here can be extremely trecherous and unstable. The person who discovered Bumpass Hell lost his leg when the ground gave away and he fell into a hot water puddle. The wooden trail safely navigates you through the area around the boiling water puddles. The mud here hardens and cracks due to the heat and forms amazing patterns. The entire geography is extremely colorful and its hard to believe something so beautiful can be created from a volcano.

There are hot puddles that are entirely covered in steam land there are pits full of mud where the mud boils and splutters. You can hear the sound of the boiling water all the way on the trail.

We absolutely loved the entire trail and watched all this natural wonder around us with amazement.

After seeing Bumpass Hell we decided to hike up the Lassen Volcano. This is quite a strenous hike. Further, it was already evening and you need torches to climb up the trail and we did not have one. However, it was a full moon night so we decided to climb anyway. The hike is a relentless steep climb with no flat regions for taking any breaks and can be quite exhausting. However, the views from the top are breathtaking and completely worth the effort. From the top you can see all the lakes - Helen, Emerald and Summit and the valley aruond. The full moon reflected in each of the lakes and it felt as if there were several full moons down below. A sight that we can never forget. Thats Aparna feeling a bit tired after the climb so far.

By the time we decended from the mountain, both of us were dead tired and it was late in the night. We drove to redbluff and stayed at a Motel there overnight. The next morning we drove back to the Lassen Volcanic park to see Lake summit that we had missed the earlier day. Aparna was still feeling tired and slept all the way in the car.

Lake summit was beautiful with lush greenery surrounding it. Here is where I learnt that Aparna likes Daffodills a lot especially blowing on them.

It was a fabulous trip and I think a great way to celebrate my Birthday. Thanks Aparna for showing me such a wonderful time that I can never forget.