Lassen Volcanic National Park

Sorry folks, but it's Gary at the keyboard today.  Over the last two days, Judy and I have been roaming through Lassen Volcanic National Park.  It was not only beautiful, but also a great way to escape the crazy hot temperatures at lower altitudes, which ranged from the high 90s on day one to 107 on day two.  Driving from Red Bluff to the south entrance of the park takes a little over an hour, so naturally we drove north to Redding and went in the north entrance, which took closer to two hours.

 

  The first place we came to, and one of the highlights of our two day adventure, was Manzanita Lake.  It's a beautiful lake, and we arrived just as three deer and a bunch of geese were putting on a show.  Obviously they weren't bothered much by our presence, and hung around for several minutes. 

 

 

 Further down the road we could see the back side of Lassen Peak.  The front side was more barren, with less snow.  Our favorite views of Lassen Peak were coming down from the north.

 

On the way to the summit, which is about 8500 feet, is a lake aptly named Summit Lake.  Judy took a very nicely framed picture (below) as we all, the dogs included, fought off a swarm of dragonflies.  

 

 

Not long after we stopped for lunch at nearby King's Creek Picnic Area, not realizing that we were the lunch. The picnic area was on the edge of a meadow (below) inhabited by nasty, hungry, biting flies with a bad attitude, and we're still nursing the wounds from that battle.  Shortly after we finished lunch and fled from King's Creek, the battery in Judy's camera died and we drove back to Red Bluff.

  

 

Returning for day two with a freshly-charged camera battery, we drove up from the south entrance.  Another highlight of our Lassen tour was the incredibly beautiful Emerald Lake.  In the picture below you can see the amazing green color, caused by algae on the shallow bottom, and crystal clear water.   

 

 Another really spectacular lake is Lake Helen.  The color is a brilliant blue, and the setting is an alpine forest and snow.

 

 We were blessed to find a great picnic spot right on the edge of Lake Helen, without all the carnivorous flies of the previous day.  Our spot was very private, so Sherwood and Sadie were able to run around off leash and play in the large patches of snow. 

 Finally, here is the video of Manzanita Lake! Enjoy the amazing scenery.



 





 Here are the three big lessons we learned on this trip: 

1. Always travel with bug repellant in your bag. (You're not in the South Bay anymore, Judy!) There are a lot of bugs in the alpine meadows because there's lots of water.
 
2. Make sure you check the camera battery before you take off and have it fully loaded. It died on Day 1 before we left the park. 
 
3. Always start your travels with a full tank of gas. We did make it without running out of gas, but the little gas light was lit before we got to the gas station.