Lassen Volcanic National Park


Day 9: Sunday, July 7, 2019

Happy anniversary to us! There’s not many other adventures I’d rather be on than this one with these people of mine, so I feel pretty blessed to celebrate 12 years of marriage this year!


We were ready to pull out of Yosemite Pines by about 8:30 and that was one place I was ready to leave—I just didn’t love it as much as some of the other parks and I was not looking forward to that windy drive down the mountain. Our plan was to get to Sacramento by mid-day to see the US Women’s World Cup game over lunch, but then we realized it had started at 8 am so we just played it on the radio.

In the meantime, we were adjusting our plan for lunch and got a recommendation from a high school friend (thanks, Mike!) to go to The Barn by Drake's Brewing Co. on the Sacramento Riverwalk. It ended up being pretty easy to park the RV right by the brewery and were about an hour early for the opening time so we walked along the path and checked out the river and the sights. The brewery served pizza and had a food truck for other food, so we ate and drank some local beers and everything was delicious!






We got back on the road and made it to the Mt. Lassen KOA by late afternoon, got set up, and checked out the amenities. They had a lot of great things for the kids like a giant swing, pedal bikes, playground, frisbee golf, and ping pong, so they got to playing while we sat and enjoyed our anniversary cocktail.




We had an easy dinner of leftover pizza and tacos, then played a family game of Skip-bo…Sean won again, he’s on a roll!! We sent the kids to play at the park together with warnings for good behavior, but lo and behold we heard crying coming toward us about 15 minutes later. A game of frisbee golf gone wrong and Barrett has an accidental shiner courtesy of his (very apologetic) sister.



At that point, it was time to wind down, so we started the fire and they had some cool color-changing powder to throw in the fire to make it glow blue and green. After that excitement wore off, we did s’mores and then got these crazies to bed.


Day 10: Monday, July 8, 2019

We planned better for our day in Lassen Volcanic National Park and knew the visitor’s centers would not be open until 9, it was not going to be too hot, and there would not be large crowds, so we were able to have a little later morning. I got up and out for a run by 6 am, and once again had some pretty decent hills to run on. I did a 4 mile run and got back as Sean was preparing my coffee and getting the outdoor grill ready for bacon—see why I love this man! We did bacon and eggs on the grill for breakfast tacos—yum! The kids finally woke up and got to enjoy some with us and then we got ready for our day. We have some pretty bird friends hanging right by our campsite and discovered they are called Steller's Jays—they are vibrant blue and black and have a cute little mohawk.



We arrived in the park right at 9 am, checked out the seismograph machine (very cool to see especially because CA just had an earthquake the other day!), got the junior ranger books, and learned that the trail for one of the hikes we wanted to do was closed and that many other trails were snow covered. 




We set out to drive the park loop and see some of the sights and ended up stopping for to touch the snow and take  pictures—snow is still novel for my sweet Sonoran kiddos! We were able to hike a little stretch of the Lassen Peak Trail though it was snowy and slippery. The white of the snow was absolutely blinding and it was kind of wild to be in the middle of summer in 70* temps on a snow-covered mountain with people cross country skiing by us!






We kept on the route through the park and next stopped at an overlook that offered amazing views and a look at one of the GPS devices installed to measure the earth’s movement. Kinsey was very into it and learning about how it worked!



Next we made it to the Sulphur Works, which is a mudpot and fumarole right by the side of the road that are easy to observe—with both your eyes and your nose. To quote Barrett, “It smells like stinky eggs!!” And that it did!



By that point we had reached the other visitor’s center so we stopped in to go through the interactive exhibits, catch the park movie, complete the junior ranger activities, get sworn in, and buy a few Lassen souvenirs. We enjoyed our picnic lunch and then headed back to the other side of the park where we entered. 


Checking out who fits in the bear locker! Kinsey would be safe!!
We stopped to check on kayak rentals but decided to hike around the lake instead (1.4 miles), caught some gorgeous views of Lassen Peak (looks like a postcard!), and did it in just enough time to catch the ranger chat when we finished. We learned some more about the 4 kinds of volcanoes in Lassen and Kinsey was selected to assist with one of the activities.








After that full day in the park, we headed back to the RV. Just when Sean and I thought we could get a little downtime, the kids were clamoring to do all of the park activities that they had not yet tried. We rented the pedal bikes and I think Sean and I got more of a workout pushing and chasing those things all through the park than the kids got pedaling them.



We had another easy/leftovers dinner of deviled eggs (a family fave!), grilled chicken salad, pizza, and hot dogs. Sean built another campfire and the kids did jiffy pop over the fire—that was fun! We all had reasonable bedtimes so we could be ready to move on to our next destination in the morning.  


Tomorrow the adventure continues!

Lassen Volcanic Highlights
BDG-touching the snow and seeing the mudpot
KPG-hiking through the snow and seeing the mudpot
EAG-seeing the mudpot and catching the beautiful views at Manzanita Lake
SGG-seeing the mudpot

Location: Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA

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