cassidyrose | Aug. 9th, 2012

Last week we headed north and spent four days/three nights in the Lassen area, then two more nights in Sacramento. It was a great trip, but admittedly, exhausting with the two kids, both of whom got varying degrees of sick (we came home, unpacked the car, went to the doctor and found out they both had ear infections). Still, we loved exploring Lassen Volcanic National Park, as well as McArthur-Burney Falls State Park. Lots of hiking which takes longer and is a bit more harrowing with a two and a half year old (we did no stroller, no carrier for him...he had to walk everything we walked). The most exciting part of Lassen for us was doing the hike to Bumpass Hell and back where we learned that hiking at ~8200 feet is no joke. We also explored part of the Ridge Lake trail, Sulphur works, and the Manzanita Lake area (S. was most impressed by the store there). We drive through the park a couple of times as well so we saw the lakes and plenty of deer and squirrels.

On the Tuesday of our trip we drove through Lassen National Forest and visited Subway Cave which is a .3 mile long lava tube. We all loved it, especially since it was about 50 degrees cooler inside than it was outside. L. just plowed ahead in total darkness with just his flashlight, happy as could be. We then drove to Burney Falls which was unspeakably hot anywhere other than at the base of the falls. The falls were amazing and I could have sat there all day. We did the trail that goes down to the falls then up around the rim and it was all gorgeous.

We stayed in the tiny town of Chester, south of Lassen NP and it worked very well for us. It was only 30 minutes into the south entrance to the park and the hotel was pretty nice and blessedly quiet. We watched the Olympics at night before bed.

The Sacramento part of vacation will have its own post. I am still working on processing my pictures (as many, and first time shooting raw), but here are a few that I am liking a lot.

Bumpass Hell....really like another planet