Lassen, part 3 - Brokeoff Peak

Our tour of Lassen Volcanic National Park continues - with another hike up a mountain and more geothermal fun.

And a minor milestone in the current day - these pictures were taken on September 1, so I made it to September blogging before October ran out.  Hoorah!

OK, back to Lassen and a climb up Brokeoff Mountain.  This peak is in the chain of highpoints that were once part of a huge caldera.  Not quite as high as Lassen Peak, but still with great views, and the trail starts quite a bit lower so the climb was a hefty one.  I was grateful that my legs had recovered from Cowboy Tough and we motored on up the mountain.

This one has a woodsy start:

Past small creeks and a pretty pond:

Something happened to this poor tree, I'm not sure if we figured out what:

Nice view of Brokeoff Peak - we'll be climbing up the back side, thank goodness:

Lovely trail through the shrubbery.  And it's still hazy down lower, another good day to get above the smoke clouds:

View up the back of Brokeoff:

This was a pretty spectacular finish to the trail.  You're just hiking along these big switchbacks thinking you still have a ways to go, then all of a sudden you're almost at the top.  With an unexpected view dropping down to the left:

We could see the form of the ancient caldera, now that we knew what to look for (with Lassen Peak in the background):

I liked the shape of the shadows:

We had the peak to ourselves initially, then some nice people showed up behind us.  Two separate parties and both had ties to Chico (and all recommended the Sierra Nevada brewery tour, thank you for that!).

One guy offered to take our picture as we were sitting looking out over the landscape - much appreciated:

On the descent, more mountain flowers:

Driving back, we stopped at the "Sulphur Works", a geothermal feature that was used as a source of sulphur and also an inn/steambath house:

Back to the land of steam, heat, and crazy colors:

One of the larger bubbling pools in the park:

This one is accessible from the road so lots of people can see it, very cool:

Boiling, bubbling mud:



That is just not normal:

We climbed up the short (but steep!) trail from there to Ridge Lakes, very nice:

I love all the tall trees:

Another glimpse at the "hot creek" on the way down:

Next up, it was time to get off the main road and explore the further corners of the park.

Lassen, part 2 - Bumpass Hell

Something with the name of "Bumpass Hell"?  Yes, that needed to be high on our list of things to see at Lassen NP.  I love showing up at a park not knowing much about it and learning so many cool things.

John dropped me off on one end of the route we picked and drove to the other end to run the other direction.  I picked him up later, and we got to see twice as much without having to do an out-and-back.  I honestly didn't choose the "mostly downhill" direction on purpose, and John didn't seem to mind the extra work of the climb up from Kings Creek.

High mountain scenery on a lovely day:

Lake Helen with Lassen Peak behind it:

The excellent trail over a small ridge toward Bumpass Hell:

My first glimpse of the strange landscape:

Yep, it's a geothermal area!  Like a mini Yellowstone and just as colorful:

Imagine just hiking around in the mountains and coming across this crazy valley for the first time:

Happily there are boardwalks so we can get closer to the action than the earliest people to come here:

Steam, hot water, mud, sulfur...

Not a very hospitable environment, full of heat and hissing steam:

Still, some flowers manage to survive nearby:

Not a normal creekbed:

I snapped this picture before realizing that John was photobombing it - hi John!  Fancy meeting you here!

A confluence of geothermal waters:

Bubbling water - we were looking for mud pots, but it was apparently too wet to form those yet:

Hissing steam vent:

A short clip of one of the louder features in the valley:



We were quite fascinated with all of it:

Such a photogenic place:

Hey, there's an actual mudpot at the edge of a pool!

I managed to lean over enough (with camera firmly tied to my wrist) to get a little video of the mudpot:

One last look as I hiked up the other end of the valley (and I can still smell the sulfur as I look at these pictures two months later):

Manzanita shrubbery:

I like the high mountain hills, very pretty:

Flowers taking the opportunity to bloom before the cold weather returns:

More mountain flowers:

Dr. Seuss tree:

More trees with interesting shapes (and moss):

The Cold Boiling Lake - kind of anticlimactic after the Bumpass Hell experience:

It's so subtle that they put up a sign.  "Note: Cold gases bubbling up through water"

Ah, OK, I see it.  Well, that is indeed interesting.  Not quite what I had pictured, but still cool.

On the drive back to the campground we stopped for a short walk around part of the "devastated area" on the north side of Lassen Peak.  Here's where an avalanche of lava and snow swept down the mountainside and removed all vegetation in its path.

The avalanche carried hot lava rocks with it, and some of them were deposited here.  They cooled and cracked (I wonder if that was loud), and now they look like jigsaw puzzles that you could reassemble:

B.F. Loomis was a photographer who witnessed and filmed the Lassen eruptions in 1914 and 1915.  Here's one of his photos, where he includes the label "Hot Rock".  He took the picture 3 days after the eruption, and the rock was still hot to the touch:

It's hard to imagine being around for such excitement on the mountain - much less sticking around to film it.  We had to settle for a photo of the same rock many years later (much less hot, and with trees growing back up around it):

Another giant lava rock to marvel at, a 300-ton piece of dacite lava 5 miles away from its origin inside the volcano:

That was an excellent first day in the park, and there's plenty more to explore!