Redding, CA / Lassen Volcanic National Park

We stayed four nights at the Sacramento River RV Resort in Redding, CA. We drove about an hour to spend our first full day in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Then we spent our second day doing laundry, cleaning the RV, then resting. The third day was Sunday, so we visited Bethel, which was just 20 minutes from our campground. It was fun to have Mitch Wong, an Australian-born Grammy-winning singer/songwriter from Nashville, lead several of the worship songs.

There wasn’t as much to do at Lassen Volcanic National Park as the other parks we’ve recently visited, but we still had a good time there. We were able to enter the park via the South Entrance, drive through the park to see the sights, then exit via the North Entrance.

We started at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center and watched the video about the area and volcanos in general. Besides talking about the four different kinds of volcanos and how they are all represented in the park, it told how a photographer spent a couple of nights near Lassen Peak in 1915, in hopes of capturing photos of it erupting (there had been other recent activity, so changes were good.) Sure enough, he got them and their popularity helped the Lassen Peak National Monument become Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Next, we stopped at Sulphur Works and admired the mud pots and hot springs while enduring the smell. Then we pulled off at a few overlooks to enjoy the impressive landscape.

The main thing we did here was hiking the Kings Creek Trail. It was a relatively easy 2.5 lollipop trail, (the first and last part was out-and-back, and the middle was a one way loop) that was enjoyable to hike, especially with the nice weather. It had a lot of shade and only a few really steep parts right next to the falls. Many of the trees were burned during a 2021 fire, so there was kind of a ghostly/haunted feel while walking through certain sections. The falls cascaded and as we hiked, we were able to see different sections of it. Not as awe inspiring as the other waterfalls we’ve seen lately, but still nice, so I’m glad we took the time to hike this trail.

When we were almost back to the parking lot, Randy was near a boy who was playing around the creek and dropped his baseball cap in it. He yelled, “my hat! my hat!”, so Randy hurried over to grab it from the water before it was carried too far away to catch. (The parents were watching from further away, so they wouldn’t have made it in time.) So, Randy was able to do another Good Samaritan deed today. Maybe we’ll be able to keep the streak going at each park we explore!

We also walked the .5 mile interpretive trail in Devastated Area and learned about the types of lava rocks in the park. There were some cool old photos of people standing next to huge boulders that had been blown a few miles away from the volcano.  It was taken a few days after the eruption and the rock was still hot.

Then we made a quick stop for pics at Chaos Jumbles, which was the aftermath of an enormous rock avalanche, where rocks were 130 ft deep in some places and had buried the original forest.

And our last stop was the Manzanita Lake Area. We popped in Loomis Museum to see the series of famous volcano photos by B. F. Loomis in 1915. The museum also has the actual old view camera that he used to take the photos. Kind of cool.

Then we crossed the street to Reflection Lake. Since the wind was rippling the water a good bit, there was no reflection while we were there. We decided to not bother with walking around the lake’s trail. So, that was it. We drove the hour back to the RV and relaxed the rest of the evening.