Journeys›Photograph

Smoky August Day at Lassen Volcanic

·Shasta County, California·#hiking#summer#wildfire#northern california#lassen volcanic national park#geothermal
A large wildfire sends a towering plume of smoke into a blue sky above a dense evergreen forest and dry field.

A wildfire column was already standing over the ridgeline before we even reached the park boundary — thick and white, climbing out of the trees past a fence line off the highway. Not what you want to see on the drive in, but the road stayed open, so we kept going.

Stopped at the entrance sign for the usual photo, then took the trail out to Bumpass Hell. Lupine was going hard in the meadows along the way, whole slopes of it purple against the talus. From one overlook you could see the smoke again, a long plume drifting northeast over the valleys, hazing out the far ranges.

Bumpass Hell itself is the biggest hydrothermal system anywhere in the Cascades, and it earns it — mudpots the color of wet concrete, steam venting off the hillside, one pool an unlikely milky turquoise. The boardwalk keeps you off ground that would happily boil you. The whole basin smells like sulfur and sounds like a kettle that never gets taken off the stove.

The park turns 104 this week — established August 9, 1916. Lassen Peak tops out at 10,457 feet; we stayed lower.

Two people stand by a Lassen Volcanic National Park sign with a stone base, evergreen trees and blue sky behind them.Two people pose in front of a Lassen Volcanic National Park sign, with trees and a blue sky in the background.Two people stand in front of the Lassen Volcanic National Park sign, with pine trees and bushes in the background.A wide mountainous landscape with rocky foreground, scattered pine trees, and a distant wildfire producing a plume of white smoke.A dirt path winds through a field of purple wildflowers, leading to a rocky, tree-covered hillside under a blue sky.A geothermal landscape with a pale mud pot and stream, white ground, dark green trees, and a rocky hill under a blue sky.Steam rises from a barren, rocky valley, with a winding boardwalk, a stream, and pine forests under a blue sky.A geothermal landscape features a bright blue pond, colorful mineral deposits, and a forested mountain under a clear blue sky.

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