Lassen Volcanic

After visiting the gorgeous Lake Tahoe for the first time, I got to visit the highly underrated park of Lassen Volcanic. This park has tons to offer: four different types of volcanoes, lakes, geothermal features, wild forests, and so much more! For some reason, it doesn’t seem to be on many people’s radars, probably because it is in a pretty remote part of Northern California. Still, I really enjoyed this park and it exceeded my expectations. Since the park road goes up pretty high, we were able to hike to the top of Lassen Peak, the volcano that exploded in the early 20th century for which the park got its name. Even though we visited in July, it was still covered in snow! After hiking to the top of the peak, we explored the area around Manzanita Lake and camped there for the night. The next day, we had to hike a back route to get to Bumpass Hell, since they were redoing the main trail that normally takes you here. Even though we almost got lost in the backcountry due to snow covering the trail in some places, we got some epic views of the wilderness, and eventually made it to this really cool geothermal area, which almost feels like a mini Yellowstone. This park is definitely worth a visit!