Lassen revisited ...

Exactly after one year I revisited Lassen Volcanic National Park :) This time I camped in a different corner of this national park. Near the beautiful Butte Lake. Carpooling with Hina was fun that we equally shared the drive on Butte Lake road and we saw a bear running. Low point in this trip was I didn't take my absolute companion ... my camera ... so I am letting you see the pictures of my last year visit :)

In my trip last year I had visited and hiked most of the popular destinations in the park like hike to the Lassen Peak, Brokeoff Mountain, Cinder Cone, Bumpass Hell, Kings Creek falls. It was a great trip then. So, this time I wanted to cover the trails which I had missed last time.

Hikes ...

What is special about Lassen ? There are 4 types of volcanoes in the world and all those 4 types exist in Lassen !!:) The 4 types of volcanoes and those exist in Lassen are :

Plug Dome - Lassen Peak
Composite - Brokeoff Mountain
Cinder Cone - Cinder Cone
Shield - Prospects Peak

So, I had not climbed only one and that was Prospects Peak. Camping at Butte Lake was very convenient. Prospects Peak trailhead (map)starts from Butte Lake and was only 7 miles round-trip with a steady climb over an easy grade. Still it is very hard on the knees and ankles as we have to walk on the loose volcanic ash/gravel. On the way back my knee gave me some problem that I thought I would never be able to hike again :(

This is view from top of Prospects Peak, Burney Mountain Look out ... to ... Mt Shasta ...

There was a register in this rusted box ... me and Hina printed our names with date ...

Next day, we went for Cluster Lakes loop hike (map), the trailhead is at Summit Lake which is 45 miles drive from Butte Lake. It was a 12 miles easy and beautiful hike in the shade of redwood and pine trees. There are about 10 lakes in this cluster, seven of them named and three unnamed. Some lakes were deep blue in color and some emerald green. It was very nice to walk on the lakes-side, it was cool and breezy ... almost flat trail under the happy green trees. There were blue jays everywhere ... though their song is not that melodious, they brought more color and life to already beautiful landscape there ... We went on ... Echo Lake ... Upper Twin Lake ... L0wer Twin Lake ... Feather Lake ... Silver Lake ... Big Bear Lake ... Little Bear Lake ... some unnamed lake ... and then Summit Lake ... and we were back ... Pictures of Cluster Lakes Loop ...

On the third day, Hina wanted to go for Lassen Peak and I went for some easier hikes around Manzanita Lake, around Reflection Lake and Lily pond trail. Lily Pond Trail is an interpretive and self-guided trail, but there was no one other than me. I saw the Lily Pond but no lilies.

Reflection Lake is beautiful from where I could get the nice views of Chaos Crags and Lassen Peak. I wish I were there early in the morning for pictures.

Manzanita trail was quite crowded and I was looking for a secluded place to sit and read a book which I had picked recently from library.

And I saw a family of deer.

I picked a spot and settled ... I could see people kayaking, and fishing ... there are trout here ... and there is a limit of three trout per day ... I could see the trout jumping out of the water a bit and making a 'tout' sound ... after a while I got used to that sound ... Later I saw a mammal which was swimming in the water looked like a huge rat. Could be a wood rat or could be a beaver.

On the way back I wanted to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant which I had discovered during my Crater Lake trip few weeks ago. Wong's Chinese Restaurant is very near to the exit 603 on I-5 and the food is very tasty. I ate Garlic Eggplant and Vegetable Fried rice. yummy yummy ...