#006 – Lassen Volcanic National Park (Mineral, CA)

(日本語文はいつもどおり下のほうにあります!↓)

When you live in California, you are in constant exposure to variety of geological awesomeness. We have deserts, woods, ocean, and of course volcanoes. It’s a wonderland for geologists, nature enthusiasts and likes.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is full of mystifying nature. After the catastrophic eruption on 1915, the broken mountain soils has yield new life to meadows and created new passages for rivers to flow; the same exact shock that brought death has also spawned new life.
The story of life cycle continues regardless of our human will.

Watch this video in full screen HD for full effect:

We’ve started our Lassen adventure quite early on Saturday morning [5am] and drove from San Francisco towards the northern remote town of Shingletown (Yes. There is a town named Shingletown in California) to enter the park’s west entrance by 9am. Although it was the 4th of July weekend with foreseeable battle to even find a place to bivouac; we were lucky to find a decent camping space in Manzanita Lake Campsite. We were happy about this – as majority of our targeted hikes are located on the west side of the park. If you are planning (or not planned thoroughly) to visit the park for long weekend, I highly encourage you to get here early in the morning to try your luck finding the spot. This is one of the rare campsites where walk-ins actually has a chance to score a decent camping spot last minute.

As soon as we unloaded all the sleeping gears and locked all food supplies to bear box (NOTE: for those who never heard of term “bear box,” it’s essentially a metal vault to keep the food away from bears and avoid mishaps with mentioned unexpected guest) we headed South to Brokeoff Mountain Trail Head. 002 003Brokeoff Mountain Trail Head was somewhat hidden from the main road, it was tuck away in the depth of bushes and we had to walk for about half a mile from Southwest Information Center building via curvy road to reach the entrance. The long expectation to reach the trail head somewhat reminded me of the scene from Stand by Me only lacking the cameo appearance by wild deers. 004 005007The summit of Brokeoff Mountain offered great view of Lassen Peak in the distance as well as patches of green speckled over beige mountain range. Time passed slowly on the top of mountain, and only the clouds were busy above our heads moving along. After spending decent few hour on the summit dozing away on our sleep deprived heads, we finally descent to the bottom to make our next adventure to Bumpass Hell. 008 009On the path down to the bottom – impressive fauna tells the fertility of mineral rich soils.010011 012 013 014Bumpass Hell–as one would suspect its possibly intended pun in the name–is actually the easiest hike in the park to see the best appeal of Lassen’s unique geological feature: hydrothermal pools.
Hiking difficulty from the parking area to the hydrothermal pools is moderate and offers scenic view of distant mountains and crystal clear Emerald Lake. Once you reach the bone white pools of puffing sulfuric steams, you will find yourself amidst the wonder of nature.
Here, pools after pools of boiling hydrothermal create extraordinary ambiance of so-called “hell” that is blisteringly beautiful. 015

016 017 018 019 020 021 023 024After Bumpass Hell, our party continued on the trail to Cold Boiling Lake (which was really cold and rings true to its name) and concluded the hike at Kings Creek Picnic Area. At the end of the trail icy cold Kings Creek greeted us to cool down feet and wash our dust covered faces. 025 026In the video, you see the glimmering crimson sunset over Manzanita Lake. This was my favorite moment of this camping trip. Just as I thought the clouds were muffling the ray of setting sun, the sky blushed magically like its last statement to the rotating Earth. Witnessing the fleeting yet glorious red sunset over Manzanita Lake was something like watching the secret of the planet; like some unexplained mystery of ancient civilization unfolding its truth. 027 028 029Second, and last day in Lassen was concluded by the steep ascension to Cinder Cone. Cinder Cone was like an empty shell of what once has been the untouchables of nature now dormant and only speaks its past through the vacant crater. Sitting atop the caldera and gazing past the distant mountain was meditative experience.

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(日本語)

カリフォルニアの雄大な自然に一歩足を踏み出せば、人が大地と共に生きることの喜びを再確認させてくれるでしょう。

アメリカ合衆国内で僕の好きなネイチャースポットを三つ挙げるとすると、ヨセミテ国立公園がダントツの一番、ユタ州のザイオン国立公園が第二位、そしてアリゾナ州のセドナ公園が三番目に来るでしょう。勿論、僕のまだ行ったことのない公園は数えきれない程ありますが、何度訪れても飽きがなく尚かつ比較的行きやすい場所で絞るとこうなるわけです。
近場だと割と色々行ってみたつもりですが、今回初めて訪れたラッセン火山国立公園は完全に見落としてました・・・

ラッセン火山公園はもともと活火山地帯だった場所が100年前の1915年に大噴火を起こし、その火山灰と溶岩が地形を変えたことによって新しい川の流れが生まれ、栄養素を得た土が緑を育み生まれた自然のオアシスなのです。このように気が遠くなる程の経緯を得て出来た大自然の中に人は足を踏み入れ、テントを張り、陽が昇り沈むのを呆然と見つめながら何かを思うのです。
火山そのものは噴火で吹き飛び無くなってしまっていますが今でも高温度の温泉が沸き立つ地点(Bumpass Hell)や、火山の跡まで上がれる地点(Cinder Cone)もあり、ここの公園でないと見られないポイントは幾つもあります。

泊まりがけで訪れるのであればManzanita Lakeのキャンプ場をお勧めします。このキャンプ場は国立公園としては珍しく予約無しでも場所の確保ができるので、長い週末を狙うのなら早朝に到着しチェックインすることをお勧めします。Manzanita Lakeの美しい湖と湖畔から見る日没は息を呑む程の美しさですので、是非。

::ラッセン火山国立公園のウェブサイトはこちら::

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