The Lassen Volcanic National Park is a really nice park, not too crowded, especially this time a year. Unfortunately, the main attraction of the park, the Bumpass Hell trail, was closed for construction (and will be closed until December 2018). I tried to make the best of it and see and experience the volcanic and no volcanic gems of this park.
My base camp was at the Manzanita Lake Campground in the northwestern part of the Park. You could see the Lassen Peak from the Manzanita Lake Trail… gorgeous…
On my first day I drove the Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway to the Southwest Entrance and hiked to Mill Creek Falls, Paradise Meadows and Echo Lake. I really did a lot of hiking here. Because dogs are prohibited on the trails in the National Park I did walk with Eyra in the morning in the campground, left her in the RV (with plenty of water and temperature-controlled of curse), and went for some hikes. Then I spent a long lunch break with Eyra again, did a little walk, played with her and went to another hike in the late afternoon. Like this I hiked more than 13 miles (21 km) in one day… Beautiful hikes – but not as “volcanic” as expected.
From some of the viewpoints along the Highway you can see some forests covered with volcanic rock, Sulphur Works, a place where you see and smell hydrothermal areas with boiling pools (and smell sulphur…) and a scenic route that rises up to 8500 ft (2600 m) – that means snow in June!
My best experience in the three days I was here was the hike to the top of Cinder Cone. An unreal scenery and a great hike to the top of the cone. The steep climb to the top was like climbing a huge pile of sand and gravel. So a lot more exhausting than a regular path in the mountains. But you get the reward at the top of the cone with a spectacular view in this unreal landscape.
Looks like a Giacometti sculpture, doesn’t it? 😁
Can you see the two hikers on the path?
This was my last stop in California – see you in Oregon!
Three on the Road 
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