I slept horribly. I couldn’t really fall asleep and, if I managed to somehow become asleep, I’d wake 30 minutes later to repeat the process. Eventually, Lara got up and I was able to abandon my struggle for sleep. We had a good breakfast, broke camp, and set out. We hoped to leave by 10 – we left at 10:30, so a little late.
We made a slight detour on our way to Lassen Park Highway – there’s a lava tube about 1/4 mile out of the way, so we went and saw it. It was cool, but made me continue to think of the park in terms of Craters of the Moon National Monument(which is cool, it actually makes Idaho an OK place to visit). After the 30 minute, 1/4 mile hike, we set off again.
We got to the park’s northwest entrance at 12:30 and stopped in at the Loomis Visitor Center. We filed a wildlife sighting report for the bear and found out about a way to get some free stuff. Lassen, like the Park Service, is turning 100 this year, and to encourage people to explore the park and learn about it, they have some challenges that win you stuff: to get a free carabiner, there are geo-caches in the park that tell you about it’s history, find 6 of the 12 and win!; to get a bandanna, do three hikes (we’d already done 1, so, woo!).
We did a quick lake hike (1.8 miles, took about an hour) around the lake by the visitor center. The views were nice, and Lara got to see (and dip her toes in) water.
We then moved on down the road. We stopped for some caches and did a short (1/4 mile) interpretive trail in the Devastated Area. The eruption of Lassen in 1915 is less obvious now, but from the pictures with geologic back-story… damn.
We pushed on, got to the highest spot on the road in the park, got a close up of Lassen, and went to the Bumpass Hell trailhead. At this point it was 3:30. I knew that I needed to get to a motel to do more work, but I wanted to see the geothermal features there. My brain fought with itself for a while – making me cranky. Eventually, I gave in to the temptation to say “fuck it, I’m on vacation.”
We set off on the 2.7 mile round-trip trail. It’s fairly popular and easy. There wew some nice scenic spots on the way. And then… sulfur smells. A little bit later, a view of fumaroles and a river of grey, milky water. This was cool. And they have a picture showing how much Big Churn (the main feature) had grown in 100 years – it’s impressive.
We set back and got to the car at 5. I was cranky because: 1) jerk brain want worky, and 2) my knee was hurting again. We rushed off, hoping to make it to the southern visitor center in time to claim the prizes… we got there around 5:30, they closed at 5. Lara hunted down a ranger who said we could probably mail in and get it, so, that helped make me slightly less cranky.
We left the park at 5:45. We had traveled 40 miles in 5 hours. We hit the road to Fallon, NV to sleep (or, in my case, work). Around Reno, we had the idea to actually check on vacancies… and now for panic. Everything seemed to be filled up. We got to the I-80 exit for US-50 in Farnell, parked, and Lara started calling around. Eventually we found the EconoLodge in Fallon had some rooms and went on our way. We got in, got settled, and then I worked. I finished around 2AM, decided to then sort through the various pictures I had taken the past few days, and write this reflection on the day. So, another 3AM bedtime.
Tomorrow: Great Basin National Park, a hike or two, camping
Stats: 21 days, 7 states (and a province), 17 hikes, 65 miles, too much work.