Day 2: Lassen Volcanic National Park - June 16

We intended to hit the road right away when we woke up but when Natasha offered to make us a scramble with potatoes and kale from their garden and farm fresh eggs, we decided to stick around.  She also made us wonderful herbal tea with ingredients grown and dried there and some excellent local honey.  The food was fantastic, and it was great to get to spend some extra time with Natasha, Marilyn, and Rose.  They are a special family and I’m glad to have met them.  I have a feeling we will be returning to the permaculture farm for a cob building workshop sometime in the near future.

We left their farm with a mason jar full of a handcrafted tea blend courtesy of Natasha and hit the road for a three hour drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  Though the name should have clued me in, I was surprised by all of the geological significance in the park.   Turns out Lassen is one of the few places in the world where all four types of volcanoes can be found in close proximity.   We made our way through the park from the southern entrance up enjoying beautiful mountain lakes, abundant wildflowers, and wonderful vistas.

We hiked to Bumpass’ Hell (named after a man who wanted to turn the hydrovents into a tourist attraction but whose plan ended when his leg was amputated after he fell through the ground twice stepping into a hydrothermal pool) where we learned about fumaroles (sulfur vents complete with smell of rotten eggs), mud pots, and boiling pools. 
We befriended a family who really seemed to know their stuff but admitted to freely speculating so by the end of the hike, we either all understand what we saw exactly right or entirely wrong - I’m just not sure which.  We also stopped at the Devastated Area to see the area, well, devastated by the major eruptions of Lassen Peak 100 years ago and how several eruptions dramatically changed the landscape.

We arrived at the northwest end of the park and our stop for the night - the camping cabins at  Manzanita Lake.

After checking in with the camp host, we went to the camp store to buy food for the night…unshucked ears of corn and cans of soup we could cook over an open fire.  (Given the length and diversity of the trip, we brought very limited camping supplies, but this meal turned out to be delicious and may change the way we camp in the future.)  Rachel impressively got a major fire going really quickly, attracting the attention of two boys from a neighboring cabin, who were great helpers, bringing us wood for the fire and sticks for roasting marshmallows.

(They even brought me some of their marshmallows so I wouldn’t have to eat Rachel and Julia’s vegan ones.)  When 6-year-old William told 4-year-old Preston he was being “facetious” I knew these were boys I wanted to get to know better.  Preston invited us (really insisted) that we come roast our marshmallows at their campfire so after we ate our amazing dinner (that corn was spectacular) we spent the rest of our evening roasting marshmallows, making s’mores, running races, playing in "awesome"

forts, and drinking tea with the boys and their lovely family – dad Nate, mom Lauren, and sister Emma (age 3).  The littlest sister Cora (15 months) was already asleep so we never met her.   We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with this family!  Turns out the boys have an uncle who lives just  a few blocks from us in Mountain View – so hopefully we’ll see them again!