Lassen Volcanic National Park- day 1

Lassen Volcanic National Park has been on my list of places to visit for a while. Attracted by its living features -volcanoes, boiling mud pots, hot pools- and the promise of wilderness and solitude, I wanted to go last March, when I first discovered its existence. But heavy snow and the closure of its main road meant that I had to wait until summer. So, when snow finally melted and a long weekend approached, 4th July, I already knew where to go.

We left San Francisco late in the morning on Thursday and stopped for a quick packed lunch in Williams - a small town on Highway 5. As we opened the car doors in the town’s parking lot, the heat engulfed us. It was 93°F (34°C) degrees. What a stark contrast to 65°F (17°C) degrees of San Francisco a few hours earlier!

A few miles after Williams, we had to stop again because my husband needed a coffee and would only drink one from Starbucks. Despite my attempts to convince him that coffee is the same everywhere in America, he did not want to venture in any of the other coffee shops we saw along the highway. He replied that at big chains you know what you get and the quality cannot vary so much. He had a point and I had no choice but experience another hot spell in Willows - the only nearby village with a Starbuck.

Despite the high temperatures, typical for this time of the year, it was mostly green around us: corn and sunflower plantations, fruit orchards, hayfields and olive trees. Miles and miles of intensive agriculture, which would not exist without the precious water of the Sacramento River and its tributaries, surrounded us.

At Red Bluff, we left Highway 5 and took Highway 36 towards East. The green farmland disappeared and a honey-yellow soil accompanied us until the outskirts of Lassen National Forest. As we gained elevation, we caught a glimpse of the lush and dense vegetation of the park.

Our first encounters with volcanic activity, and a prelude to what would come later, were a few mud pots and fumaroles at Sulphur Works, along the park’s main road, soon after the Southwest entrance on Highway 89. As you approach the area you cannot miss a stinky rotten-egg smell, which we later learned was from sulphur contained in the soil.

Lassen Peak and Lake Helen from Bumpass Hell trail

Sulphur Works were nothing compared to the scale of Bumpass Hell, the park's largest hydrothermal area. Certainly we could not miss it and so we embarked on a 5km hike to get there.

Just before reaching the area, as the vegetation rarefied, we got a grand vista of the hydrothermal activity and the bordering eroded soil. The rotten-egg smell was back. This time accompanied by a roaring sound of steam and boiling water.

If you have studied Dante's Inferno, the place will feel weirdly familiar and your mind will start travelling through your memories, trying to reminisce his descriptions.

A boardwalk took us through turquoise boiling pools, mud pots and fumaroles, all testifying the awesome and, at the same time, scary power of nature.

The place is named after Kendall Vanhook Bumpass, the explorer who discovered it in 1865 and who, unfortunately, lost a leg from severe burns after stepping into a mud pot.

Bumpass Hell hydrothemal area

Fumalores and mud post at Bumpass Hell

Fumaroles at Bumpass Hell

After the hike we drove to our motel in Burney - the only place with a free room we could find within a 40 miles radius from the park. With its 3,050 inhabitants (probably counting RVs and cattle), Burney appeared very small to us but had four petrol stations (isn’t too many for a remote village in Northern California?) and a few restaurants.

The lady at the reception recommended a steak house on the other side of the road. After a few disastrous attempts to eat meat-free during previous trips in the California, I had realized that steak was probably the best food you could get outside a big city. So, we quietly headed towards the steak house, knowing that meat would be our food for the next three days!