Lassen Volcanic National Park, 13-Jul
Our first full day at Lassen Volcanic National Park ended up being a piecemeal day, rather than the organized outings in Redwood National Forest. Things worked out, though, and we went up a cinder cone and hung out a bit with the group for lunch.
We had arranged with our B&B host to have breakfast a little early to make it easier to meet up with people at 8 a.m. to carpool. It ended up that people were going to meet at 7 a.m. instead, so we told people we would meet them at the trailhead and try to catch up.
Our B&B is near Shingletown, about 10 or 15 minutes outside the west entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. However, our first hike was in the far northeast corner of the park, so we figured people would get there quite a bit before we did. As it ended up, we got there first, but didn't have to wait long for others to arrive.
The trail we were doing was Cinder Cone, where you hike to the top of the cone. We knew the trail would be a lot of loose sand/gravel and figured it would be quite a bit of work. There were two paths, one that went around the back and was longer, and the shorter path which looked very steep. We went the longer route since it seemed that it would be quite a bit of work as it was, especially considering that we were over 6,000 feet higher than we had been in Redwood National Park.
Route decided, we started out, walking along a slight incline until we got to the cinder cone. Things got steeper, and when we did the final push to the top, the path turned into small rocks. We saw someone ahead of us reach what looked to be the top, and it was a relief to see that he seemed to be taking in the view. We soon got there and also took a look around. There was part of the rim that was a bit higher where others were gathering, so we joined them.
There was a path spiraling down into the caldera of the cone, but none of us chose to do that, since it would be a lot of work to get out. We could, however, see Mt. Lassen beyond the caldera, which made for a nice view. When we were ready to go, some of us took an extra loop that took us right to the edge of the caldera, then we went back up over the rim and started down.
The route down was definitely faster, both because the path was shorter and it was less work. At the base, we emptied the sand out of our boots, then headed back to the trailhead. People were gathering by the lake to have lunch, so we looped around to the west entrance, parked, and walked along Manzanita Lake until we found the group eating.
Walking back after lunch, people seemed to want to do different things, so we went our own ways. The two of us went into the visitor center to take a look around, and we watched a movie about Lassen's volcanic past.
We were done for the day, so we headed back to the B&B to clean up, then back to where we had dinner the night before to get something to eat.
We settled into our room, and when it got dark outside, I took a look to see what stars were out. I went out to the road to avoid the lights from the house, and could only see between the trees on the sides of the road. I did still see quite a few, though.
