Our visit to Lassen Nat'l Park was a super one. This park is an area with volcanos, Lassen Peak had a series of eruption from 1914 to 1917. Mt St Helen erupted 1980, so this is an indication of what to expect there as the years pass and nature does it's thing. The lake behind us was formed when one of the eruptions moved rocks to block a stream at the time. We had super weather for our stay and enjoyed 3 days in the park.
This is Cinder Cone, a volcano (inactive). Note the trail winding up the side. After a 1.2 mile hike to this cone you then have an 700 ft ascent to the top. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that the trail is all cinders and very loose. Oh my! Les made it up much faster than I but I did make it, much to my surprise. We were rewarded with beautiful views. Check out some of our other pictures of this trail in the slide show. Oh to get to this location we drove a 7 mile gravel road. That sure did make our camper and bikes dusty and the vibration shook some things loose but the camper fared out pretty well.
This is a thermal area of Lassen, Bumpass Hell, a trail that takes you up 500 ft in a mile and then drops down 250 ft to the thermals was a much easier walk than the cinder cone trail. How interesting to see the power of the underground!
We have been able to take advantage of some Nat'l forrest campgrounds along our way. Here we are at one just outside Lassen as we make our way to our last Nat'l park stop: Great Basin Nat'l Park in Nevada.
The drive from Reno to Great Basin is a very stark and beautiful one. It surprised us that we found a campground, a Pony Express station, with wifi! A few days at Great Basin and we head east for some long driving days home. Just in time as the forecast for this area is that the cold fall weather is coming in just a few days!! That will push us home fast. Our target to arrive in PA is Oct. 12th.
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