Our First Lassen Trip
Aug 10th 2012 to Aug 13th 2012
There were 2 fires going on in the park (one inside the park in the north side of the park and one outside of the park in the south side), so most of the park was closed, North Entrance, Cinder Cone Area and Juniper Lake area all are closed, so we spent all 4 days in South Entrance and Warner Valley. We had a really nice relaxing vacation. In Redding, Anderson and Redbluff, the temperature was so hot on all 4 days of our stay, it was between 108 to 111 degress, very hot, in the park, it was much better, upper 70 to lower 80, much better.
Aug 9th, Thursday
We drove from San Jose and stayed in Anderson for the night.
Day 1 - Aug 10th, Friday
We left Anderson at 9 AM and drove to Lassen North Entrance via CA-44 E and we were told in the North entrance that the north side of the park is closed and we have to drive to South Entrance. We arrived at south entrance and our gas was close to empty, the nearest gas station was in Chester, CA, which is 30 miles from South Entrance, so we drove Chester, filled up gas and went to Warner Valley. Warner Valley Trail head is 17 miles from Chester. You will see board saying 11 miles to the Warner Valley after that no
sign for the next 8 miles, we were little bit confused about whether we
are going in the right direction or not. Finally there was a sign saying Drakesbad 3 miles, finally we knew we were in the right direction, the last 3 miles are dirt road and we made it in our Prius. Finally we started our hike at 3.45 PM. It was getting late and there was fire going on as well, so we decided to do the short hike, which is Boiling Springs Lake.
Warner Valley Trails
The cloud seen in the picture is fire cloud. You can see the fire inside the smoke
Boiling Spring Lake with the fire clouds in the background
Nice Trail around the Lake
Lush Greens near the trail
Creek next to the trail
Deer next to the trail
We completed our hiking by 5.45 PM, drove back to Redding, had our dinner and came to our hotel in Anderson. All in all we drove 280 miles in 1 day.
Day 2 Aug 11th, Saturday
We left our hotel in Anderson, drove to Red Bluff and to Lassen South entrance, it took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the park.
Today 1st stop was Sulphur Works.
Boiling Mud
View from Sulphur Works
Next stop was Bumpass Hell
this is 3 miles round trip hike
Rocks alongside the Bumpass Hell trail
View before descending into Bumpass Hell
After Bumpass Hell hike, we drove back to the Visitor center, had lunch and Ice cream and took rest for sometime and started our next hike, which is Mill Creek Falls, the trail head is next to Visitor Center Parking lot.
The trail started like we are hiking into the forest, down hill hiking
Then walking uphill to lush greens
A butterfly caught on camera
Again walking into the forest
Finally the falls. It looked like we walked so far, way more than 1.6 miles
On the way back
Took rest for sometime in the Visitor center parking lot and drove back to Redding via Redbluff, had dinner in Redding, came back to our hotel in Anderson.
Day 3 Aug 12th, Sunday
We drove to Lassen South entrance. Today 1st stop was Emerald Lake, as the name says the water was green.
Pretty yellow flowers next to the lake.
Then we decided to hike Devil's Kitchen, which is in Warner Valley area, so we drove to Warner Valley, we were driving through thick smoke, because of all the fire... the following picture is not fog, its smoke, we could smell the smoke. It was 1 hour and 15 minutes drive to Warner Valley trail head from South entrance.
We had lunch in the picnic area and started our hike to Devils Kitchen around 12.45 PM
We started our hike into the forest
Water wheels in the creek next to the trail
Then walked into the grass land, into the hot blazing sun
Again into the shady forest.
Before descending into Devil's Kitchen
finally the Devil's Kitchen
We went to Devil's kitchen on Sunday, but we didn't see 1 single soul
until we were half way back to our trail. Then we saw 2 groups of
people... We drove back to Visitor Center in south entrance, had ice cream, took rest for sometime and drove back to Red Bluff.
We took exit for Canyon View in CA-36
Volcanic rocks along CA-36
Drove back to Redding, had dinner and drove back to our hotel in Anderson.
Day 4 Aug 13th, Monday, final day of our trip
Packed our luggage, drove to the park. Today 1st stop was Lake Helen
The blue Lake Helen with Lassen Peak in the back
Next stop is Kings Creek Falls.
Kings Creek flowing next to the trail.
Again today we were hiking into thick, very thick smoke
Tiny falls, along Kings Creek
Few portions of the trail had so much pebbles and rocks, it was really difficult to hike down in that, hiking uphill in that rocks were much more easier than hiking down hill.
Beautiful Kings Creek Falls
After the hike, we drove to Lassen Peak parking lot, just took some pictures from the parking lot.
View of Lake Helen on the way back from Lassen Parking lot.
Drove to Visitor center, had Ice cream, took some rest and drove back to San Jose.
