A Field Study Of Lassen Volcanic National Park

For this field study, I was a little torn between which area would suit me the best. After researching and talking to various people, I was talking to my dad, who was taken aback by the project. My dad (as well as I) has been involved in Boy Scouts for a long time, and had been on innumerable backpacking trips, campouts and hikes, and he told me that Lassen National Park was a fine place for any sort of study. It took little persuasion for me to appreciate the stark beauty of Mt. Lassen after seeing a few pictures online, so I was very sold on that destination. Only one problem: My family was not about to let me go by myself. We decided to leave the morning of the nineteenth of April, camp a night on site, and then come back the following Sunday.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is a federally protected park located near the town of Redding. LVNP is 106,000 acres of mountainous terrain formed by the rich amount of volcanic activity that has persisted within the area for thousands of years. The area has a vast amount of geological features, and is dotted with lakes, crystal-clear streams, thick forests and even sites of sulfur vents and hot springs. The altitude of Lassen Park ranges from place to place, with most of it being over a mile above sea-level, but the tallest point within the park is Mount Lassen itself, which stands over 3,000 meters into the sky; almost two miles from sea level. The peak itself got its name from a Danish blacksmith named Peter Lassen, who guided a trek of immigrants through the area and used the mountain as landmark. The month of May in 1914 kicked off a series of volcanic eruptions from Lassen that didn’t stop until sometime in 1921. Luckily, no civilians were reported killed. On August 9, 1916, Lassen Peak, the nearby Cinder Cone and the area neighboring them were declared a National Park because of the volcanic activity and the sheer splendor of the place.

Upon driving into the park, once we paid for a parking permit and such, almost as soon as we started out into the main tourist road, the sheer vastness of this place amazed all. The narrow road meanders lazily through the park, around lakes, on the side of mountains with a great mass of stone on one side and a steep drop-off on the other, and through steamy vents, with frequent places to stop for a photo op. We chose to skip these to get to our ultimate destination of the camp grounds so we could off-load and get to sight-seeing. Once we did that, I chose to strike off on my own, thinking this to be a better way of experiencing this area.

Since Lassen is so high up in elevation, it was pretty chilly there. Because of this high altitude climate, areas of built up snow dot the park from frequent snow fall during winter months. Later I learned that in lots of areas, snow never leaves and it sticks around all year and most doesn’t even start to melt until July. Despite the nippy weather, it was an undoubtedly beautiful day, with clear skies all around.

On my trek I passed small lake on a barely perceivable trail around it. The water was untouched, and able to be see right through with little trouble, with fallen branches from overhanging trees jutting out of the water’s shores in total contrast to the water. I left the beaten path and marched into the forest on my quest for nirvana. Most of the forest I walked through was made up of pine trees, which later I figured out were mainly Ponderosa, Jeffrey, and Sugar pines. For the brief period that I was at the camp site I noticed little chipmunks running around, which were less numerous out here (my guess is campers love to throw food to them, and they love it too). Still, small creatures abound out here; birds chirped away in the trees while chipmunks (which I figured out later were actually ground squirrels) scurried about between the trees and the ground. The ones out here in the wooded area seemed to be calmer, I suppose, then the ones in the campsites.

Once I stopped moving around and found a comfy rock (oxy moron?), I just sat down and let the world absorb me. Not surprisingly, the wilderness happily obliged. Everything went out of mind, and once I tuned out that annoying song playing on a loop in my head and forget that I am supposed to be taking down notes, the wild became clear, and the norm became absurd. I started to be able to tune in any sound nearby: any bird that was singing, any pine cone that dropped to the ground with a THUD! a hundred feet away, it was easy. Who said drugs were the only way to induce a state of euphoria? Clearly they had never rested alone in the woods of Lassen on a nice day.

One of the other places I traveled to over the course of this trip was obviously to the top of Mount Lassen itself. This time I could not get rid of my family, so they went with me on the hike to the top of the mountain. Conveniently there is a trail leading to the very top, which is around a five mile round trip from top to