Lassen Volcanic National Park

The Volcanoes

On our way from central California to southern Oregon we stopped by Lassen Volcanic National Park.  The landscape we viewed on the drive there was interesting.

A picture taken from my sister Grace's window

I tried to take a photo from my own window, but it turned out like this:

Yes, I hadn't had time yet to free my window from stickers a decade old and stickers only a few years old.  (sigh)  The view from my window wasn't exactly the best.

The entrance fee to the park was $20.  We passed by a sulfur volcano first.  The mud was tremendously hot—to the boiling point!  I wondered how hot it actually was—probably more than it looked!

The warning sign warned visitors not to step off the path.  Oops!  You'd be burned awfully bad.

The mud was popping and boiling.  The whole place smelled strongly of the worst batch of rotten eggs anyone ever encountered.  I didn't mind the smell much, though.

The boiling mud pot was on one side of the road.  A steaming hill was on the other side.  Large holes could be seen from the sides of the mound, each hissing out a great amount of hot steam.

As we continued to coast down the road I was surprised at mounds of white-looking stuff lying on the dirt beside the road.  What in the world was it?

Yes, it was SNOW!!  Snow in a place where it was warm enough to wear a t-shirt.  Anabel insisted I take a photo of her Freckles Bunny in the snow.  I gladly agreed.

Close to the same area my brother Theodore found an interesting-looking insect which he caught after a short chase...

...Dad found a lava rock...
...and also climbed a fallen tree trunk.

We drove on for a little while before I was asked to take another picture of Freckles Bunny (whose real name, for your information, is Fee-Furry-Fur, Freckle-EE Cheese).

Lunch was delicious—ribs and rice—eaten with a bag of chips that had inflated on account of our altitude (somewhere around 6,000-9,000 feet).

A few more minutes of driving brought us to a gigantic snow mound, which was across the street from an ice hole.  Pure clear water flowed from the hole.  I reached down and fingered the water in my hands.  It was nice and cool.

I didn't realize how good a signature carver Anabel was until that day, when she etched her signature into the ice.  Poor Freckles Bunny couldn't write, so Anabel signed her signature for her.

Our next stop was Emerald Lake.  We passed by too fast for photos, but I did catch one of the next lake.  It was bluer than blue!  The cause of chemicals, Dad explained.

Farther down the road we hiked down King's Creek and ended up beside a lake.  The road was sunny and not very shady, though drifts of snow lay beside the trail.  Later we found out that the path we took wasn't to King's Creek.  But it was a nice road, anyway.

And right in the middle of the lake was a large bubbling area.

Our trip was closed with the sighting of two ducks sleeping on a log and several geese feeding in the tall grass.  One goose served as "lookout".

Tired but happy, we drove on to Klamath Falls at the close of the day.