This Northern California park has four types of volcanoes and the ground literally boils

Lassen’s Eruptions Aren’t Over Yet

About 50 miles east of Redding, at the southern tip of the Cascade Range, Lassen Volcanic National Park spreads across 106,000 acres of hydrothermal chaos and volcanic landscape.

The park pulls in roughly 500,000 visitors a year, a sliver of what Yosemite draws.

According to the USGS, this is one of the few places on Earth where you can find all four volcano types in one park: shield, plug dome, cinder cone and composite. The bubbling ground under your feet is just the start.

The 1915 eruption sent ash six miles into the sky

Lassen Peak stands 10,457 feet tall and ranks as one of the largest lava dome volcanoes on Earth. It sat quiet for roughly 27,000 years.

Then on May 30, 1914, it blew, kicking off more than 180 steam explosions over the next year.

The worst came on May 22, 1915, when an ash cloud shot more than 30,000 feet into the air and wiped out about three square miles on the northeast flank.

No eruption hit the Cascades again until Mount St. Helens in 1980.

Congress made this a national park on Aug. 9, 1916, and named it after Peter Lassen, a Danish settler who guided immigrants through the area in the mid-1800s.

You’ll smell the sulfur before you see Bumpass Hell

The rotten-egg stink of sulfur hits you well before you reach the boardwalk.

Bumpass Hell is the park’s largest hydrothermal area, a 16-acre basin of steaming fumaroles, bubbling mud pots and boiling pools.

It got its name from Kendall Bumpass, an early settler who fell through thin ground into a boiling pool while exploring in the 1860s. A three-mile round-trip boardwalk trail keeps you safely above all of it.

The Big Boiler fumarole, the largest in the park, has hit 322 degrees Fahrenheit according to the USGS, making it one of the hottest on the planet.

Drive 30 miles through volcanic destruction and alpine lakes

Highway 89 cuts 30 miles through the western half of the park, connecting the northwest and southwest entrances.

You pass the Sulphur Works hydrothermal area right from your car window, then climb past Emerald Lake, Lake Helen and the Devastated Area left behind by the 1915 eruption.

The road reaches one of the highest elevations of any paved route in the Cascade Range.

Download the free NPS app before you go, and you can follow a 16-stop audio tour that explains what you’re seeing as you drive.

Lake Helen sits frozen at 8,200 feet most of the year

Lake Helen rests at about 8,200 feet at the base of Lassen Peak. Snowmelt feeds the glacial water, and it stays frozen or snow-covered for much of the year.

Even in summer, the water runs cold enough to make you flinch. On a calm day, Lassen Peak reflects perfectly on the turquoise surface.

Nearby Emerald Lake earns its name with deep green water edged by pine forest. Summit Lake, roughly halfway along the scenic drive, warms up enough for swimming and fishing.

Juniper Lake, the park’s largest, sits in the southeast corner at the end of a dirt road.

Climb 2,000 feet to look into a volcanic crater

The Lassen Peak Trail covers roughly five miles round trip and gains about 2,000 feet on the way to the 10,457-foot summit. At the top, you look straight down into the volcanic crater.

On clear days, the views stretch across the Cascade Range and into the valleys beyond. Snow keeps the trail closed until midsummer most years, and it stays open through early fall.

Even on warm days below, wind and cold temperatures at the summit can catch you off guard, so pack layers before you start.

Walk the rim of a 700-foot cinder cone from the 1600s

In the park’s remote northeast corner, Cinder Cone rises roughly 700 feet above the surrounding landscape. The volcano formed around the mid-1600s, making it one of the youngest volcanic features in the park.

The four-mile round-trip trail to the top fights you the whole way with loose volcanic gravel, but the summit gives you views in every direction.

You can walk the rim trail and look straight down into the crater.

To the south, the Painted Dunes spread out in swirls of orange, red and tan where volcanic ash fell onto still-hot lava flows and oxidized.

The dark, blocky Fantastic Lava Beds nearby make the whole scene feel like another planet.

Devils Kitchen has boiling springs and almost no crowds

Warner Valley sits in the park’s southeast corner, reached by a partly unpaved road from the town of Chester.

The USGS ranks Devils Kitchen as the park’s second-largest hydrothermal area, packed with boiling springs, mud pots and steam vents.

The trail to get there runs about 4.2 miles round trip through meadows, boardwalks over creeks and forest. Because of the remote access, you may have the whole place nearly to yourself.

Nearby Boiling Springs Lake, a simmering geothermal lake ringed by active vents, sits just a short spur trail away.

Paddle Manzanita Lake with Lassen Peak in the reflection

Manzanita Lake, near the northwest entrance, is one of the easiest spots to enjoy in the park. The 1.8-mile loop circles the shoreline, and on calm mornings, Lassen Peak reflects right on the water’s surface.

You can rent kayaks and canoes in summer or cast a line from the bank. Nearby Reflection Lake gives you another short walk with mountain views.

The Devastated Area Interpretive Trail, a paved loop just down the road, shows the path of destruction from 1915, with giant volcanic boulders still scattered across the ground.

A stone staircase leads down to Kings Creek Falls

The Kings Creek Falls Trail runs roughly three miles round trip through meadows to one of the park’s best waterfalls. A steep stone staircase near the falls keeps things interesting, but the overall hike stays moderate.

If you want solitude and a harder push, Brokeoff Mountain covers about seven miles round trip with 2,600 feet of elevation gain.

Brokeoff is a remnant of ancient Mount Tehama, a massive composite volcano that once stood roughly 1,000 feet taller than Lassen Peak.

The summit views spread wide across the park without the crowds you’ll find on the Lassen Peak Trail.

The Milky Way shows up with your bare eyes here

Lassen Volcanic holds Dark Sky Park status, and its distance from city lights makes it one of the best stargazing spots in California.

On clear nights, the Milky Way stretches across the sky and you can see it without a telescope or binoculars. Rangers lead astronomy programs during summer months.

Manzanita Lake, the Devastated Area parking lot and Lake Helen all work well for setting up.

The park also hosts a Dark Sky Festival with constellation tours, ranger-led hikes and presentations from astronomers over several days.

Snowshoe with a ranger when the highway closes for winter

The park stays open year-round, but the scenic highway typically closes from late fall through late spring under heavy snow.

In winter, the landscape turns into a snowshoeing and cross-country skiing destination, and rangers lead snowshoe walks from the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center.

The 2021 Dixie Fire burned a large portion of the park, but all trails west of the park highway came through untouched, and the main attractions remain fully accessible.

Forest regeneration is underway in burned areas, and you may notice burn scars on some eastern trails. The volcanic geology, hydrothermal features and alpine lakes took no damage from the fire.

Explore Lassen Volcanic National Park in California

You can reach the park from Highway 36 on the southwest side or Highway 44 on the northwest. The Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center sits at the southwest entrance, and the Loomis Museum is at the northwest.

Entrance runs $30 per vehicle for seven days, and the America the Beautiful Pass works here. The scenic highway typically opens between late June and July and closes in October.

Eight campgrounds serve the park, with Manzanita Lake Campground being the largest and most equipped. Cell service is limited and there are no gas stations inside, so fill your tank before you enter.

Check the NPS app for current road and trail conditions before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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