LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK
5 STARS- Get up and Go! Few Steps Needed, Very easy with wheels
Hi Friends! Thanks for joining us on this week’s Slow Paced Journey blog. The trip is just getting in to the heavy driving part. Once we left Reno, we did not see a multiple lane road until we got back on 1-80 by Winnemucca. The good thing is you are now heading for beautiful mountains. It took us about 3 ½ hours to drive north west to Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is only our second visit here. While it is quite a bit north of where many travel in California, it is really someplace you should see. It is in the same area as Mt. Shasta, which is a popular vacation spot. Because we live in the mountains, we probably don’t appreciate what it like to see them only on vacation or while traveling through.
Lassen Volcanic National Park has an interesting place in the national park system. It is one of the 9 parks in California. Because it is a volcanic park, it has hydrothermal areas, mud pots, geysers, lakes, and steam vents within the park. Unlike Yellowstone, these features are all within the mountains and hikes are necessary to visit these features. From the south entrance you will first visit Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitors Center. This very nice center had history on the park and its development. It had 2 small gift shops that had different items and a very good snack bar with drinks, sandwiches, and a large variety of snacks. If you are hungry, it is a good place for food, as you will not find another place for quite awhile.
From here there is a drive that will give you access to all of the hikes and viewpoints. We stopped at most of the viewpoints. The drive took us about 90 minutes with stops. It comes out at Manzanita Lake and then joins to Hwy 44 to Redding. There is a large campground here with a store. They also rent cabins here. There are other camping areas within the park also. Check the park website to see your options. The beautiful drive had many small waterfalls and streams still full from the winter runoff. As we had our windows down, the sound of rushing water followed us throughout the park. There was still snow in many parts of the park. We saw a few people kayaking in the lakes, but I am sure the water was very cold…all part of being in the mountains. All of this past years moisture provided green scenery with wild flowers. There were so many beautiful yellow, white and purple flowers on the lower levels of the park. The last time we came through was 5 years ago when they had a dry winter and things were not as green. The drive was definitely a 5 with access viewpoints and no walking involved except at the visitors center.
One thing we love about our road trips is the fact we are able to bring our dog, Obi Wan, along. Having him along gives Mark something to play with and snuggle while I am doing the driving. He makes our life happy. But having him travel with us is not as easy as just putting him and his food in the car. Our main destinations which were National and State parks have strict rules about dogs. I did a lot of research to see where Obi would be allowed. Most parks will let them on a 6 foot leash at the visitors center or in a campground. They of course are not allowed in any building. In the parks we visited they were not allowed on any of the trails, though this does really limit where you can visit. At Lassen we were able to walk around the visitors center and because they had outdoor eating tables, he was able to sit by us. Many motel chains will allow dogs. Most now charge some kind of fee. Motel 6 is always dog friendly and free, but they are often in areas of town we would rather not stay in. We have been staying at La Quinta, which also is very dog friendly and usually nicer than Motel 6. They were recently bought out by Wyndham and now charge a fee. We stayed at the La Quinta by the Reno airport- at 4001 Market St. This was a terrible motel in an awful neighborhood and I would not recommend it. More information in the next few blogs about traveling with Obi on this trip.
Next time our video and blog finally takes us to the destination of our trip- the California Trinidad Coast area, along with the Redwoods. It is a long drive to get there but definitely worth it and one of our favorite places in the world. We will see you then. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
Please check out the photo album of all of the photos!
Make sure you check out our video of the trip on youtube!