Volcanoes and Lakes

[billr]

My wife and I had to make our annual fall trip to Eagle Lake to winterize our cabin. Having never camped in Lassen Volcanic National Park, we though this would be a great time to spend a couple of nights in the park.

At long last I have a chance to post some photos from the trip -

 

[HERR42]

i like to lassen forest area quite a bit. there are a lot of places to go that are outside of the park but within lassen national forest.....with no fees, and no people!

thanks for the pics!

 

[billr]

i like to lassen forest area quite a bit. there are a lot of places to go that are outside of the park but within lassen national forest.....with no fees, and no people!

thanks for the pics!


Herr42, I agree with liking the Lassen forest. we have spent a lot of time exploring different areas around here.

To continue my report, I now fully believe it is a small world. As we were continuing our drive up 89 we came to the parking lot for the Bumpass Hell trail when we saw another FWC in the lot. I pulled into the lot, when I realized I recognized the truck and camper from photos on WTW. Here is a photo of the truck I found...

We saw the owner of the truck. We headed on over to the South Summit Lake campground to set up camp for the night. A bit later as we were setting up camp, the truck pulls in past us and stops in a parking area. Seeing our FWC the owner came over to complement my camper. I had the advantage as I recognized his rig, I introduced myself to Dirty Dog as a member of WTW.

DD later joined us for while around our campfire before retiring to the camper for dinner.

 

[billr]

A few photos of Summit Lake...

 

[billr]

The next morning we broke camp after nice breakfast, and pulled the truck over to Echo Lake trail head parking. After saying goodbye to DD, we headed on down the trail with plans to hike out to Upper Twin Lake.

This is Echo Lake, about 2 miles down the trail.

 

[billr]

Upper Twin Lake was our turn around point on the trail...

 

[billr]

Later after finishing our hike and getting back to the truck we headed on down the road. Since it was getting late, we decided to stay at Manzanita Lake campground. This is a large campground, with half of it closed for the season. I was not all that impressed with the campground with no view of the lake. There were not many people here at this time of the year so we were able to find a some what nice spot, but I am sure I would not like this during the high season. I was so unimpressed that I never even though to pull out my camera. We did enjoy a campfire and nice dinner, oh, and some beer and wine.

Here is a photo of Hat creek along the road to Manzanita Lake.

 

[billr]

Some time in the past, about 25 years ago, my wife and I had taken a drive out to Medicine Lake which is South of Lava Beds National Monument. Our memory of the lake was that we were not very impressed so we have never returned. Well this past summer I have a good friend that was working on his Master's thesis in Geography and spent a lot of time in the area. After talking to him, I wanted to check out the area again. So we made the drive from Lassen on North on highway 89.

After pulling off 89 and onto paved forest service roads we came across a prescribed burn within about 15 miles of the lake. The winds were blowing the smoke North toward the lake. It was getting very smokey along the road and we were getting worried, but alas the smoke cleared just before getting to the lake.

 

[ski3pin]

Bill, we are really enjoying your report! Lassen has so much to offer, geology, great scenery, and of course interesting characters! Your hike out from Summit Lake is one of the Lady's favorites. She likes to go north at the first intersection and do the loop. She calls it the ten lake loop. Thanks for the great photos and report!

 

[RJones]

Great report and pictures. I really need to get out that way sometime.

 

[craig333]

The park has great easy backpacking. Perfect for a beginner.

Don't forget to check out the lava cave just outside the park. Hope they removed the graffiti some lowlife left in there last time I was there.

 

[billr]

Continuing on with my report...I am still not sure why 25+ years ago we came away from Medicine Lake with bad impressions. This lake is very nice. There are 4 campgrounds around the lake, 3 along the north side of the lake, and an older campground to the west. When we got there all signage had been plastic wrapped and water shut down for the season. There was one other camper in one of the spots along the lake, so we pick a nice spot in one of the other campgrounds right by the lake. We enjoyed the lake and will have to come back some time with our boat.

 

[billr]

The evening at Medicine Lake was very pleasant, but around midnight we were awaken to the sound of a hollowing wind. The wind even blew some empty beer and wine bottles off the table outside. The wind continued to blow on through the night. That morning we enjoyed our coffee and breakfast inside the camper. Later we quickly broke camp and headed on down the road.

One of the spots my friend has talked about was Glass Mountain. We made our way from the lake to Glass Mountain and were amazed. This was not your typical lava flow, but instead is a flow of obsidian, gray dacite, and sharp rhyolite glass among others. While there is no rock collecting allowed here, there is a maze of trails and evidence of mining in the area dating back the Indians.

 

[billr]

From Glass Mountain we went on south past the Burn Lava Flow area. While nothing like Glass Mountain, it was an impresive lava flow...

From here it was back south to Eagle Lake to finish off the last two nights before heading back to the Bay area.

 

[SunMan]

Nice lake side campsite!

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Nice lake side campsite!


Yes, Bill, I agree with Mr Sun, nice camp! Thanks for the great report and all the photos!

Stew

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Nice pictures.Great place to camp and the lava beds area is so awesome.Next time you might check out a small lake called Bulls eye.It's about 5 miles from Medicine Lake.It's small but has some nice places to set up,and has fish and no wind.Make sure that you get a camp fire permit before you leave the Medicine Lake area.Usually during the summer it's required it will keep you from getting a ticket.

Frank