June 28-29, 2015 Eugene,Oregon to

We left the bus in Eugene  and took off in our car. We will drive back when the bus  is done.  We headed south toward California.

Welcome to Grants Pass, Oregon. Mount Shasta behind a barn in northern California. We stopped at Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon and I won $55!

 

Black Butte near Shasta is an extinct volcano. Oak trees outside of Redding. We spent the night in Redding. It was so hot we did not leave the air conditioned motel room.

  The next day we went to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is the worlds largest plug volcano. It was going to be 99 in Redding, but the national park is at 6,000 to 10,000 feet and it was much cooler here. Lassen erupted in 1914-1921.  There has been a lot of volcanic activity in this area. Loomis Museum  was built in 1927 by Mr Loomis who photographed the volcano erupting and the park. He  had a small museum and store where he sold his photos. We saw a movie about the park, viewed many good exhibits and learned more than we ever wanted to know about mountain lions at a ranger talk . 

 

We learned among other things that basalt rock encased in black dacite is called Quenched Blobs at an interpretive sign at the Devastated area, which was stripped of all vegetation  from the May 1915 eruption. It has now naturally reforested.  We had lunch at Summit Lake and went wading in the cool refreshing lake.

Beautiful Kings Creek  meadows. There is a trail from here that leads to Kings Creek Falls. There are lots of wildflowers. We hiked the Bumpass Hell trail which leads to a large area of spectacular boiling springs,mud pots,and boiling pools . Mr Bumpass first saw this geothermal area and filed a mining claim on it. He guided tourists up here and took them to see the hot springs. He was doing well until he fell through the thin crust by the hot springs and was badly burnt. He lost his leg from the burns.  The trail is around 8,000 feet so it was in the high 70’s and pleasant. This is the beginning of the trail.

It was a three mile hike. The pink flowers are heather and were everywhere.

John waiting for me in the trees. I of course was taking photos. We topped the ridge and looked down on the hydrothermal area.

Caution: Don’t let this infernal wonderland become your hell! Stay on the boardwalks.  It was very colorful with boiling hot pots, mud pots and fumaroles.

 

These are fumaroles, steaming vents.

 

Hot pools and mud pots.  All of this is right below Lassen peak, which has this Eye of Saron looking down on it. I think the eye  is a quenched  blob!

There are many HUGE trees, the lava flow did not reach these.  Right below the trailhead is Emerald Lake.

 

John stripped down and dove in. The water felt wonderful. Farther down the mountain is the Sulfur Works. It was at one time a sulfur mine, there was boiling mud and fumaroles here too.

  

Sights from the day. Boiling mud, colored run off from the pools, sulfur crystals and more boiling mud. Many colorful flowers too.