budgettravelwithkids

Lassen National Park is a volcanic park located about a half day's drive from San Francisco. We enjoyed seeing lava beds, cinder cones, lava caves, boiling lakes, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots. Some of the features here reminded me of Yellowstone National Park, perhaps a smaller version of the boardwalks that went by Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

Lassen's most popular hike, Bumpass Hell, is a boardwalk that allows you to walk by many mudpots, colorful fumaroles and hot springs. Unfortunately, that particular hike was closed on our last trip there (early July). The recommended hike to substitute for Bumpass Hell is Devil's Kitchen, which provides a similar boardwalk to see these volcanic features in a 4 mile round trip hike. From a junction from the Devil's Kitchen trail, Boiling Springs Lake trail starts as an approximately 2 mile roundtrip trail, the end of the trail looping around a large simmering lake with fumaroles and mudpots bubbling at its shores. The temperature of the lake is 125F and acidic, so you'll definitely want to stay away from the water.

Cinder Cone is another hike we did. That hike took us up a volcanic cone made up of black loose lava rocks, so, it was quite a hike going up. The views were amazing at the top - we saw a snow-capped Lassen Peak and all its surrounding mountains, 2 blue lakes shaped by the flow of lava that formed the probably 20 ft high now-black Fantastic Lava Beds. Between the Cinder Cone and the Lava Bed is a colorful set of dunes made of volcanic ash called the Painted Dunes. There were also trails going into the center of the cone. Cinder Cone hike was about about 4 miles long. We saw kayaks and boats rowing by at one of the blue lakes below, Butte Lake, where we sat comfortably having our picnic lunch.

Subway Cave is a short (1/3 mile) hike into a cave formed by a river of lava less than 20,000 years ago. It was very dark, cold and had uneven footing, but it was amazing to stand in the great "rooms" and "corridors" that hot lava used to flow. We also found a 1.5 foot large lava bubble (cooled of course) at the end of the cave.

Not too far down the road from Subway Cave (less than an hour) is an amazing waterfall in McArthur-Burney State Park. Burney Falls stands at 129 ft tall and at least twice as wide. It's cooling mist was welcome on a hot day. Less than a mile down the short Falls Loop trail(1.2 mile) was a chalky rock wall. Signs posted indicated that the chalky white wall was made up of ancient shelled algae forming 1000 ft thick bench in the ancient Lake Britton.

On our way back, we had hoped to stop by the 42 telescopes pointed out to the night sky to listen for the sounds of intelligent life, however the Hat Creek Radio Observatory was closed. We did get a view of it from above on a detour.

So if you are interested in volcanic features, you won't want to miss Lassen National Park. It has over 30 volcanic domes, contains all 4 types of volcanoes and though no one knows when it will erupt next, we only know that it will. Lassen has an active volcanic center, the last eruption occurring about 100 years ago.

For more details and pictures, feel free to stop by my blog at:
http://budgettravelwithkids.com/blog...rk-california/

janisj

I know you want to drive traffic to your blog but you might want to change your headline . . . >>Volcanic Park near San Francisco, California

newtome

Yeah lassen is at least a 5 hour drive, more like 6 if you stop on the way. Now i'll never read your blog

Kathie

Yes, I was stunned that she thought it was near San Francisco!

dbdurand

The first sentence of the text says it's about half a days drive from San Francisco. That defines what the author means by "near". Good enuf for me.

Good post, budgettravelwithkids.

MichelleY

Great info. Makes my want to give Lassen a shot.

Underhill

Shouldn't this post be listed as a trip report?

sf7307

It probably should be. I've never been, and since I live in San Francisco, and it's "near" (a stretch, but it's closer than it is to other big cities, I guess), I'm going to put it on my "list".

dbdurand

With regard to the original post being labeled as a trip report, I was under the impression that the little orange globe preceding the title did just that. Perhaps I am mistaken.

budgettravelwithkids

I apologize for the miscommunication on the meaning of "near". As someone who loves exploring, a half day's drive is not too much at all to discover one of nature's amazing features. However I will try to be more clear in the future.

budgettravelwithkids

dbdurand , Thanks for your kind words and support. It means a lot. I love traveling, spend a lot of time researching for my trips and just want to share what I learn with others who also enjoy discovering what is around them. Writing posts and blogging take a lot of time and effort with no monetary gain, but having appreciative readers like you make the effort well worth the trouble. Thank you again.

november_moon

Lassen is a great park. And its easier to get to from the Bay Area than places like Yosemite and Lake Tahoe because of the traffic patterns.

sf7307

I loved your post. We're spending the summer in Lake Tahoe and should at least make a day trip to Lassen - we've never been. More likely though, I'll save your report and we'll make a special trip. Today, off to hike part of the Tahoe Rim Trail at Tahoe Meadows, then to Sand Harbor when they reopen the parking lot at 3 pm (hopefully, still nice enough to kayak). (P.S. It's not exactly "near" San Francisco, but it's certainly nearer to San Francisco than it is to Los Angeles, or Seattle....)