But, it turned out to be a glorious day for a drive through the park. The last time Lassen Volcano erupted was in 1915 – between the volcanic explosion and the avalanche it caused it wiped out miles of forest.
“Hot Rock,” a 5 ton lava stone was found 5 miles away from the volcano and the local residents said it sizzled for 40 hours in the snow.
We hiked to “Bumpiss Hell” – an area of bubbling hot mud pots and pools that reminded us of Yellowstone NP. It is named after the man that discovered the area. It was his dream to mine the area and then make it a tourist attraction but he stepped onto an area he thought was firm, broke through, his leg was engulfed in 240 degree mud and had to be amputated. How horrible! His dreams never came to fruition. Glad there are boardwalks now! The 3 mile hike was invigorating but we forget how the altitude and elevation changes can zap our energy – we came home and took a nap!
The next day we drove to Burney Falls and had lunch at a really good Mexican restaurant. Burney Falls is in McCallister Burney State Park, CA and is gorgeous. The best part is its location – visible right off the parking lot! We were still tired from the hike to Bumpiss Hell!
Our third day in Lessen we hiked the Kings Creek trail to Kings Creek Falls. We are such “gluttons for punishment!” The signs said “moderate, 1.2 miles, one way” – doable for us – so off we went. We got about .8 miles and there is a detour sign that says the foot trail is damaged and unsafe so we had to take the horse trail that added about .5 miles – so now we’ve added an extra mile total. What the sign did not say is that the detour is no longer “moderate” but now “strenuous!” But, we did it! We met a couple in the campground from San Antonio and had planned to invite them over for “happy hour” but we got home, laid down to rest and almost slept through dinner!!
Having trouble loading my picture of Kings Creek Falls!
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