Lassen Volcanic National Park

[caption id="attachment_739" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Lassen Volcanic National Park Entrance[/caption]

Time to update the blog. We left Park Sierra near Coarsegold, CA on the 30th of July and headed north. We got as far as north of Sacramento when we began to experience problems with the truck. It would not shift properly. We stopped in a rest area and made arrangements for a mobile truck service the following day. Fortunately, we found a good spot where we could put out our slides, so we just spent the night in the rest area.

The next day the truck service guy came out and spent about 2 hours trying to figure out what was causing the problem. Suddenly the fault went away and we could not make it reappear. We took the truck for a test drive and everything seemed OK, but neither of us was sure it was fixed. We hooked up to the trailer and headed north. About 20 miles up the road it began acting up again. We stopped in Red Bluff and found a nice RV park.

The following day we took the truck to the Volvo dealer in Redding, about 30 miles north. We left the truck there and decided on a whim to return to Red Bluff via Lassen Volcanic National Park, a detour of about 120 miles. It was well worth the extra miles. Lassen is one of the volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range. Others of note are Mt. Ranier, Mt. Shasta, and Mt. St. Helens. Lassen last erupted in 1915. We climbed out of the 100+ temperatures in Redding into the cool pines at over 8,000 feet. Lassen itself is rather stark as it lost a big piece when it blew in 1912. It was not as spectacular as Mt. St. Helens when it blew, but close.

The next day we got the word that the truck needed a new transmission computer which would take a week to get. Since we were stuck, we decided to do some exploring. After all, where ever we park is home. That afternoon we drove back up to Lassen and took a hike we would have liked to have done the previous day, had it not been so late.

Lassen is still quite active. There are mud pots and geysers in several locations. We took the 3 mile round trip hike to Bumpass Hell. It reminded both of us of Yellowstone.

[caption id="attachment_741" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Bumpass Hell from above[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_742" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wooden walkways in Bumpass Hell[/caption]

 

Steam Vents and Mud Pots in Bumpass Hell

 

There were some pretty lakes and lots of other scenery as well.

 

[caption id="attachment_745" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Lake Helen[/caption]

After our hike and some more touring we continued on to Redding again where we unloaded the motorcycle from the truck and I drove it back to Red Bluff, following Dianna in the car. We have some more travel plans for this week, using the motorcycle. Stay tuned.