Lassen Volcanic National Park - June 24, 2005

Trip theme: "Old Folks Tour"

Originally our intention was to camp somewhere in Lassen Volcanic National Park and then climb Lassen Peak and potentially Brokeoff Mountain. I had heard before the trip that Lassen was still covered in snow, and frankly we were still pretty tired after Shasta, so climbing quickly gave way to a car tour of the park. We drove over from Shasta in the morning, stopping off to buy sunburn lotion on the way. We stopped in at the visitors center on the north side where I asked for them to mark the "Old Folks Tour" on a map for us. The girl at the counter found this to be amusing. It turned out that everything we really wanted to see was on the road. The only exception was the Mud Pots and that trail was closed under heavy snow. We did a quick devastation tour, searched high and low for Hot Rock, took a short hike to nowhere, finally saw an alpine lake and found our way to the Lassen Peak parking lot. I was dismayed. We could have totally climbed that thing! The snow was only down low and totally off the ridge line. It would have been easy to get through the snow. Only the north side was still totally covered. Unfortunately it was mid-afternoon and a summit bid was out of the question. I bought a tee-shirt at the gift shop and we moved on. We then saw where the trail was to the Mud Pots and checked out the Sulphur Works. They are similar to what you would find in Yellowstone but on a much smaller scale. After that we headed back to Sacramento and my obligatory trip to Jack in the Box. Mmmmm. Lassen VNP was interesting enough. While I don't think I would backpack there, I would definitely go back and climb Lassen Peak if I was in the area.

Lassen Volcanic National Park	Oh boy, more snow
Looking up at Lassen Peak from the trailhead. We coulda done this easily	Hey look, a really big rock. Some people are easily amused
Brokeoff mountain. Another potential target	Checking out the Sulphur Works
Gurgle gurgle gurgle	The obligatory picture at the NP sign

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