Visit to Lassen Park, Labor Day Weekend.

Last month we visited 

Lassen Volcanic National Park,

during the Labor Day weekend.

It's an hour's drive away,

and it only took us 12 years to 

go see the park after we moved here.

Glad we went, cause it's closed now...

(Cussing out the politicians here.)

I should hold the camera down at 

ground level more often.  I like this 

photo even though the duck in the water

is too dark to see.

Fall color was just starting to show at Manzanita 

Lake which is at a lower elevation in the park.

Conner was with us.

It was cold, so sweaters were needed

at the lower elevation of the park...

Conner borrowed Grandpa's sweatshirt.

Oh, and those are Crock's not clogs...

Grandma's need to stay on top of these things.

Heading up towards Lassen Peak.

The road reaches it's summit

 at just over 8,000 feet.

A glacier left this bolder behind.

How big is it?

I wanted a photo of Conner with

the bolder, but there were too many people

doing the same.  

At this elevation, the wind had picked up

and we were cold.

Conner wanted to head back into the car.

This is also where you park to take the

trail down to Bumpass Hell.

It's where mud boils, and 

steaming sulfur vents emit

odoriferous fumes.

I saw Bumpass Hell as a little kid

and the smell was unforgettable.

It still smells the same.

Surprisingly the lupine were in full bloom.

It was spring time in the high elevation.

It has snowed there since then.

See the Vulcan Eye?

I didn't know it had a name until 

I looked it up.

There's hikers in this photo.

They are at the top center of the mountain

and just to the right hand side, midway down.

Closer look at the Vulcan's Eye,

and the hikers.

The trail to the summit

was only open for a few days

this summer during just

  a few weekends.

About ten days total.

The closures are because

they're repairing restraining walls.

One wall crumbled a couple summers

ago killing a little boy who had been

sitting on the wall with his sister.

The officials at the park

were found guilty of covering up

evidence and the family has recently

received a settlement for an undisclosed amount.

Glacier scars.

Amazing huh?

The power of ice.

 Due to extreme amounts of snow,

the main park road usually 

closes in the fall,

and stays closed through June

and into July.

   Lake Helen at 

8,200 feet gets between six and

seven hundred inches of snow each winter.

Last year, a lightning strike

started the Reading Fire in the park

during a red flag alert.

It had been a record dry year.

Park officials decided to let it burn

to reduce future fuel loads...

Big Mistake.

The fire escaped park boundaries

and burned 28,079 acres.

The fire started July 23,

and was finally contained on

August 21.

 The main park road is 29 miles long

offering many different views of the 

mountain, as you wind your way around it.

The National Park websites 

are shut down today...so I had to find 

other sources to get accurate information

to share.

Ah, well, on to the next stop.

 I wanted to say I'm sorry if this

post seems way too long.

I didn't want to divide it into two posts.

I did cut it down from the 80 favorite 

photos of the park that I started out with. 

Ooh, you're lucky.

I just deleted the rest of this

post which was a political rant.

Rick is on partial furlough. The office is open and most of the employees are working.  But they will not get paid until the politicians can straighten out the mess they have made.

ENOUGH SAID