A Day at Lassen Volcanic National Park

A few weeks ago it was hot where I live. I mean hot, as in 117°F hot. Lucky for me, my boyfriend lives on Mount Lassen so I went to visit him. His home is at 4,500’ in elevation and therefore usually about 20 degrees cooler than it is down in the valley where I live.

In the mornings we usually take our doggies for a walk. It is so nice because our little pack of puppies and pugs get to romp and roam as we walk through the woods. One particular morning I ask him about going and visiting Lassen Volcanic National Park for the day. He thought it was a great idea.

When we got back home, I began packing a lunch for us to have as a picnic. I made a simple salad and cut up some veggies. I grab the hummus and peanut butter and filled a couple of water bottles too. I gathered it all up and popped it into a bag. Soon we were off on our day’s adventure.

We arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park about half an hour later. The entry to the park was free with my disabled pass. Please not that if you are on SSDI you can apply for a free lifetime pass for all National Parks. All you need to do is take in your award letter from Social Security and fill in the form.

James and I toured the park museum first. It featured pictures of the eruption of Mount Lassen 100 years ago. We also watch a short film on the park and the 5 types of volcanoes presented in the park. As a geology graduate, anything with volcanos and rocks make me happy. After touring the museum we decided to go for a hike.

Going on a hike is great news for me. Months ago I was having a lot of difficulty just walking around my house. I had to have a couple of epidurals in my back this year just to relieve the pain and make my legs work again. This has led me to being able to exercise and slowly doing things I love again- such as hiking.

After a quick look through the tour brochures, I decided on Lilly Pond Trail. The head of the trail was located just across the street and it seemed like a short trail, only 0.75 miles long, marked as flat and easy.

Shortly after we began our hike we came across a grey blue heron sitting on some rocks out on Reflection Lake. It was so awesome to watch this giant bird stand there, regally, like he ruled the pond. Unfortunately we startled him and he flew off, spreading his massive wings. We followed him around Reflection Lake, following the trail. He stopped and perched himself once again and I was able to get a couple of good pictures. He was wonderful.

After a short climb in the trail I became exhausted and needed my first break. We sat down on a log for a short while. I was wishing I had my hiking stick or cane, when I decided to be creative. I grabbed a fallen branch and trimmed it from the limbs as best as I could. Voila! I had a walking stick to help me along. Lol

We continued on the trail and came across gorgeous Lilly Pond. The lily pads that were growing in the pond were huge, so big they could easily be a hat. As we looked around we noticed a mother duck and her ducklings. They were playing in the pond bobbing up and down. Mother duck seemed to be carefully watching them. I guess the reason this trail was named the Lilly Pond Trail was because of this feature. Lol

Further down the trail the scenery changed from a forested area to something that seemed sureal. There seemed to be a haze in the air and the gound became rocky. There were scattered manzanita and toyon bushes. Gravel was everywhere and so were rocks. There were only a few scattered trees and no forest canopy for shade. I wasn’t certain what had caused this change. I guessed it was part of the Devastated Area within the park that is caused by a lahar flow from Mount Lassen. A lahar is a volcanic mud flow filled with volcanic debris, often boulder and rocks. My guess was correct as I later found out this area was called Chaos Jumbles.

About an hour after later we finally came to the end of the trail. I was so exhausted and had been needing more and more breaks. James took a picture of me and my trusty walking stick at the trail head/end. It was a great accomplishment for me and I had a lot of fun.

We ate our lunch by the museum and then drove to the Chaos Crags. This is a part of the same lahar flow that caused the Chaos Jumbles. This area though was filled with very large boulders piled high. James loves to rock climb like I do. Although our form of rock climbing doesn’t include scaling rocky cliffs, but rather scampering among boulder and such. I was too exhausted to join James in this fun so he went without me. I was able to take a couple of pictures of him way up high on the rocks. He looked like a sasquatch way up there. Lol

It was a great day at Mount Lassen Volcanic Park. I had a lot of fun. It showed me that I am getting better and that all my medical treatments and exercise has been paying off. I think I might try and put ‘Climb Mount Lassen’ on my goal list.

Much Love to all the Zebras out there.