A few years ago as we were on our way to Yosemite National Park we drove by a little known park called Mt. Lassen. It was late June and the park was still closed. The park is high in the California mountains and doesn’t usually open until July. This would be our next park trip.
We wanted to make the trip a nice summer vacation so we stayed in a cabin by the lake. After setting up our cabin we went out to see what the park had to offer.
Our first stop was Devil’s Kitchen. It was a short hike to a fumerole and mud pots similar to Yellowstone National Park. As we were walking to the attraction, we couldn’t help, but talk about our trip to Yellowstone. We realized we had been to some really amazing places.
One of our favorite TV shows at the time was, “Rock The Park” on ABC. It’s about two friends who visit and explore our National Parks, Monuments, Forest, Seashores, etc. During their visit to Mt. Lassen they did a scavenger hunt using GPS. We downloaded a GPS App on our phone and received a scavenger hunt list from the visitor center. We spent about 4 hours driving through the park learning about the geology, people, and region as we found our clues. We had a load of fun and got back to the cabin at about 11pm.
The next day we climbed the tallest feature in the park, Mt. Lassen. This 5-mile RT, 2500’ elevation gain was no match for our mountain hiking prowess, after our South Sister hike earlier in the month. We killed it! Since there were a lot of wildfires burning in the area, when we got to the top looking out it looked like what I believed the blue mountains might look like.
When we got back to camp the kids still had energy, so we rented a 2-person kayak and kayaked around the lake for a few hours.
The next day, I had planned a 3-day, 2 night backpacking loop around Feather Lake and Lower Twin Lakes. This first day we hiked 5.5. Miles into Feather Lake. We hiked through the high country, which reminded us a lot of hiking through the South Sisters Area. It was dry with little undergrowth and a lot of scrub pines. I didn’t realize that where I had planned to camp had been ravished by a wildfire the previous year and was covered with soot from head to toe. We still found a nice area to camp and quickly set up near feather lake.
Soon a herd of about 15 deer came right into our camp. They came less than 5’ away. Note to self, don’t pee at the corners of your camp thinking you are keeping critters away. They actually are attracted tot he salt in your urine. The whole night we were hounded by these aggressive deal interested in the pee of the day. 😉
The next day we arrived early to Lower Twin Lake. I had planned on camping here, but there were a lot of people and no place that seemed up to our backpacking standards. So we swam in the lake for awhile and the kids hiked on. That day we covered 6.5 miles back to the car.
With an extra day to burn, we went back to my godparents house and with their kids we went to Burney Falls. I had read in the PCT books that the falls were probably the highlight and most beautiful wonder most PCT hikers had seen on their trip. Since you can reach it by car, we couldn’t miss the opportunity. It was beautiful and hard to describe. It’s a sheer cliff waterfall, but instead of the water just going over the top, it’s seeping out of the rocks below as well as at the top. So it has this beautiful multi-waterfall into a single waterfall effect. On top of that, you can play at the bottom of the waterfall. It’s a must see for anyone traveling through Northern California.
Mt. Lassen was a really fun trip, filled with a lot of natural beauty from mountains to waterfalls, from fire to new growth, from mud pots to lakes. I would highly recommend this fun adventure.
