August 19-Mount Lassen Leaves Me Breathles

With a rhythmic “thwack, crunch, thwack, crunch” I firmly placed my trekking poles in the volcanic cinders and carefully set my feet between the protruding piles of volcanic scree littering the path as the terrain flattened out and I emerged onto the plateau surrounding the rim of Mount Lassen’s snow-covered crater, opening up vast vistas of the mountain ranges beyond and leaving me breathless with wonder.

From the moment I entered Mount Lassen National Park at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center earlier in the afternoon after traveling northeast from the bay area, I was transported to a different place and time created by the unique wind, weather, geology, and elevation present in the park.

Passing over what was once the central vent of Mount Tehama at Sulphur Works, I could see steam escaping from roaring vents and rising past bubbling mud pots up into the air above. The road continued, curving gracefully through sun drenched fields of white and yellow wildflowers with tall strands of Red Firs sporting blue-green needles towering above.

Just a few miles down the road, the vivid blue waters of Lake Helen appeared on my left, the almost surreal vibrant color created by the purity of its glacial water, cold temperatures, and the lake’s astonishing 110-foot depth.

Parking at the base of Mount Lassen at an elevation of 8,500 feet, I started climbing upwards, winding my way through scattered strands of hardy mountain hemlocks and whitebark pines set in the mountain’s loose sand-like volcanic cinders and gravel.

To adapt to the high wind, heavy snow, and blasting ice in the area the gnarled trunks and limbs of the pines grow horizontally or contort against the cliff face for protection, creating dramatic wind sheared and twisted forms breathtakingly silhouetted against the deep blue sky.

As I climbed higher in the heat, the trees became sparser and the switchbacks tighter, turning into steep zigzags carved directly into the volcano’s rocky steep ridge. Crossing above the treeline and walking without shade, I could see expansive views of Lake Helen, Bumpass Mountain, and the Cascade Mountain range rippling into the horizon, with the portion of the trail I had just climbed on snaking below.

Approaching 10,000 feet the terrain flattened out and when I reached the summit at 10,450 feet, I was treated to a 360-degree view of the volcano’s snow-covered crater, the distant snow-capped cone of Mount Shasta, the entire basin of the collapsed crater of Mount Tehama, and a giant mountain-ringed valley beyond.

While I perched on top of a volcanic boulder at the top of the peak enjoying a snack, a golden mantel ground squirrel scurried over my foot hoping for a treat, orange and black California Tortoiseshell butterflies flitted about among the cinder warming their wings, ravens foraged for insects in the snowpack nearby, and a dust devil created a captivating column of vertical swirling dust in front of me. What an amazing day on the road!