And you would say something has gone wrong.
Toad the Wet Sprocket
That something is snow. We’ve known for a while that backpacking wasn’t going to work out for us at Lassen Volcanic NP. What we didn’t comprehend until today was just how much snow there still was. There was so much that the road through the park is still closed. There was so much that at the point we were able to drive to it was well over all our heads. There was so much that driving on the part of the road that was open felt like we were in a real life version of Mario Kart’s Frappe Snowland. There was so much that we spent 15 minutes watching a group of three trying to snowshoe and only making a few meters of progress.
Our little bit of time there did leave me hoping for a future return trip. Lassen Volcanic reminded me a lot of Great Basin. Both parks seem much more sparsely visited than their more popular neighbors and both have great accessible backcountries. Although their geologic origins are quite different they are also both mountain parks, my favorite terrain.
We did spend time watching the video in the Visitor Center and being awed by the mudpots at Sulpher Works. We also met two fabulous rangers who happily answered all our questions and even took time to be interviewed by Ellie. Be sure to check out the latest episode of EEYNP!
With us feeling we’d accomplished what we could we returned to Red Bluff. The girls spent the afternoon swimming while Molly and I did a couple loads of desperately needed laundry. We found a great local pizza place and hung out in the room tonight. Tomorrow’s plans are a bit up in the air, but we’ll start here with the Red Bluff Farmer’s Market.
