Lassen Volcanic NP offers many varies types of hike. Easy for those less enthusiast, moderate for those that like a little more challenge and strenuous for the really enthusiast, like us…
Spending almost two weeks here, we had to pick and choose which hikes we wanted to go on-one of them being Bumpass Hell. My father always use to tell me that I got the cart before the horse too many times and in this instant-I bought our Bumpass Hell T-Shirts BEFORE doing the actual hike. So it was no brainer- we HAD to do that particular hike.
Another hike that I really wanted to do was hike to the top of Lassen Peak-but that isn’t going to happen on this trip. One they are doing some serious trail maintenance and repairs and only can hike a short distant and the second is that they are resurfacing the parking lot during the time we were here…
I wrote about our adventure on top of Cinder Cone. Now it was time to do an all day hike. All the hikes that we chose to do was nearly in the middle or at the opposite end of where we were camped.
We had first planned on breaking up the hikes into two different days, but we soon learned that they would be doing some major road resurfacing; causing major delays in travel time, not to mention that bump outs, and parking lot closure. Also looking at the weather-it seems now that we could be fighting against some thunder showers for the remainder of the week. So instead of hassling with this road construction day after day and not knowing if we could get rained on-we choose to do it in just one day. Here is how it went:
Got up enjoyed some coffee; I started to make a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and fried potatoes. Brian took Miss Leah out for a short stroll (to take care of her business).
Packed sandwiches, fruits and snacks, made sure we had our walking sticks, hats, maps of trails and we can’t forget the camera! We knew that at the end of the day, our feet would be pretty ranked-so we took along plenty of baby wipe-ups, clean socks and our regular tennis shoes. Oh and we can’t forget to make sure that Leah has plenty of water.
We knew that they were closing the parking lot to Bumpass Hell (for resurfacing) and had to park at Lake Helen picnic area. Since there was limited spaces, we had to make that this hike was our first stop. And it’s a good thing we did-by the end of the hike there literally was no room for another vehicle to park!
By now it’s 10:00am, the sun is out, but a cool start to the hike. I choose though to leave my long sleeve shirt in the truck and brave it; where Brian wore his. we walk a very short distant along the highway that was being resurface, looking back we had a great view of Lake Helen and Lassen Volcanic.
We jumped on the short spur to the main trail of Bumpass Hell. Now this hike is considered to be moderate. The trail was narrow with us having to dodge large rocks here and there-but at least we didn’t have to keep emptying out our shoes.
Just a short distant we were first greeted with beautiful purple flowers growing all along the trail.
We took a very short side trek off the trail to get a beautiful over view of the land around us! I was in just awe-that Brian had to remind me that we didn’t have all day for me to stand there and keep gawking.
The trail slowly starts to descend on us and as we march forward the air went from a refreshing smell to an acrid retched smell. And we soon seen why…
We get a quick glance as to what Bumpass Hell was all about and how it got it’s name:
The closer we got to Bumpass Hell, the more ranked the air got. Soon we were on top of fumarole, mudpots and boiling pools. We went from walking on solid ground to a boardwalk with strict notices all around stating to stay on the boardwalk.
We had steam rising all around us and the smell was beyond anyone's imagination. Like Brian put it-“it smells like a 100 rotten eggs fermenting in 100 degree temp”.
Once again I’m just amazed as to how active our earth really is….Here is sulfur and boiling pools -hidden behind the surrounding mountains…
We soon learned why we MUST stay on the boardwalk and we also made sure that our hat was tied onto us. Here is what happens when one looses their hat:
notice how the hat is starting to burn holes?
As we completed this hike and heading back, Brian has now taken off his long sleeve shirt and those hiking into Bumpass Hell passes him and makes comments about his T-shirt. I realized he was wearing his shirt that says: “This Body Went To Bumpass Hell”….
This hike was 3 miles round trip…..
Next on the way was a quick stop at Sulphur Works. I guess our nostril hadn’t got enough of the stinky smell and thought it needed more. This really wasn’t a hike, but just another wondrous part of how our earth works.
Our next hike will take us to the other end of the park near the visitor center. It’s called Mill Creek Fall Trail. This too would be a moderate hike and a little longer. Before doing this hike-time to refuel the body with our sandwiches.
The hike started out in the clearing and again was very narrow.
I seem to carry this saying this summer: What goes down, must go up….On this particular hike that’s exactly what we kept doing, going down, then back up…
we went from being in the open to forest with peaks of mountains and other volcanoes, in which I don’t know all the names (yet).
As much as I’m intrigued with the volcanoes, I also love waterfalls, so any trails that have waterfalls-it’s almost a must for us to do.
Being that it’s August, the water fall was still flowing, but I bet it was much prettier in the springtime with the snowmelt.
After this hike-our bodies needed the fruit. We also needed to replenish our water bottles as well.
This hike was 4.6 round trip.
The last hike of the day would be to Cold Boiling Lake. The name alone was intriguing to us. Is it really a Cold Boiling Lake? We soon found out. This was to be an easy hike-so our tired hoofs won’t have to work has hard now…
We get to the parking lot, and there are two trail heads-one leading up a steep embankment and one was along a creek and level. Since it stated to be an easy walk-we assumed it would be the flat level trail. Someone here has apparently taking the trail marker off the post to take home for a souvenir-leaving us to guess our destination…
We walked along a beautiful rushing creek.
Thinking it would lead us to the lake, but instead it led us right back to the highway….leaving us to scratch our head. We left the trail map in the truck-so we couldn’t study it to figure out where we went wrong.
Well we weren’t the only ones to mess up, right behind us was two ladies-also scratching their heads…But-she had the trail map. So we all looked at it, and I soon figured out that we must jump on the Kings Creek Falls trailhead to find this particular lake. So back the way we came, only to climb that steep embankment…
They claim the trail was to be easy, but for us tired hoofers, it didn’t seem that simple to us at first….But shortly we soon found signs that we were finally on the right track and soon we were at Cold Boiling Lake.
So is the Lake actually Cold Boing??? Well, sort of…
We didn’t seen any bubbles coming out of the lake directly, but near the lake was a small pool with bubbles rising from it and yes-it was cold.
We both were just a bit disappointed in this hike, but all in all it still was well worth it.
This hike was 1.4 round trip. PLUS 1 mile round trip on the WRONG trail.
Well our 9 mile hike this day turned out to be actually 10 miles. No wonder our hoofs were so tired. As we got back to the truck it’s now time to take of the shoes and those stinky smelly socks off. My socks were completely black and as I look at the bottom of my hikers, I notice that I have worn them completely through the bottom!
After about a dozen baby wipes each, a little rest, clean socks and shoes-we are ready to head home….it was a good day, very relaxing and enjoyable.
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