Enjoying Lassen National Park

Lassen National Park became a national park on August 9, 1916, after Lassen Peak erupted, blowing a cloud 7 miles into the air. When you visit Lassen National Park today, you will see that the 106,000 acres around the park were drastically altered to create the beautiful park that exists today.

If you have been considering a family vacation to Northern California and would like to do a little camping or site seeing, we highly recommend checking out this little "Yellowstone." When we compare it to it's counterpart, Lassen National Park has many of the same types of features, such as: hot springs, lakes, bubbling mud pots, Pine trees, Douglas fir trees, wildlife (no, there aren't any Bison, but their are a lot of Black bears and mountain lions), and of course the smell. The smell? Well, when you get to the east side of Lassen, you will notice that the smell of sulfur lingers in the air. The largest sulfuric springs is called Bumpass Hell, named after an early explorer who came across the place and thought the smell was so overpowering that he named it Hell.

Lassen National Park is a great park to go camping in. It has 7 campgrounds, which is an extremely large number for such a small park, but it is justified. Many Northern Californians claim the park as their "refuge" to get away from the crowds and many of them have their own special "campsite" that they frequent yearly. Most of the campsites are open by June and close in September, however, some open in May. Due to the large amount of snow the park recieves in the winter, Lassen is usually closed by November because it is too costly to maintain the roads during the winter. We recommend that if you plan to visit this beautiful park and camp, then you should go in June or September. This time of the year, has the least amount of people and you get to totally different landscapes.

In June, the landscape around Lassen National Park covered in snow and it is not unusual to find snow sitting as low as 5800 ft. as late as the last week in June. This makes it perfect for you to take your kids up the mountain side and do a little sledding! Kids love it and it is a very cheap form of entertainment. Another activity your kids can do this time of year, is to rent snowshoes from Hermit's Hut. With your snowshoes, you can hike back in to forests around the park and visit some of the beautiful lakes. If you decide to take part in these winter activities, please remember to wear a lot of sunscreen and cover your kid's whole face, including under their chin and nose. One of the most common sunburn areas for people in the snow is on their face, in particular under their nose and chin. The reflection of the sun off the snow tends to hit these forgotten areas.

If you go later in the summer or early fall, you should take advantage of the 150 miles of trails around Lassen. A common hike is the climb to the top of Lassen Peak. This climb will take the average family about 3-4 hours to the top and about half that time back down. It starts around 8,500 ft. and climbs up around 2,000 ft. to the peak. This climb is a 5 mile roundtrip climb. The other famous hike is the Bumpass Hell hike which is a 3 mile hike to the hot springs and mud pots. Both of these trails are on the east side of Lassen National park and sit at mile marker 22 and 17 respectively. From both of these trails you will get a taste of pretty much all the scenery that Lassen has to offer. If you would like to visit waterfalls or flowers, then go to the Mill Creek Falls trail which starts from the southwest campground and winds through the forest for a little over 4.5 miles on mostly level ground. As a forewarning, if you plan to do any climbing over 8,000 ft. (like Lassen Peak), bring along a jacket and plenty of water. You will be amazed to find that even though in the parking lot it may approach 95 degrees farenheit, the higher elevations tend to be windy and cold (about 30-40 degrees cooler).

For an extra bit of fun and adventure, consider taking your family on a night hike up to the top of Lassen Peak on a full moon night. This is a common activity for the locals who start around 10 p.m. and hike to the peak then look out over the valley enjoying the view by moonlight-it is especially spectacular.

If you need to call ahead and get reservations, you can call the National Park service in Lassen at 530-595-4444 or visit Lassen National Park.