Lassen Peak

Back up Lassen Peak for a nice morning hike — the trail as steep and exposed as ever above treeline, but the payoff just as good every time. Logged 5.48 miles round trip with 2,021 feet of gain, a touch more than the usual tally but well within range for this route.

Even in early August, the summit ridge still had a little snow holding on — a few lingering patches tucked along the rocky spine near the top, enough to stand on for photos before continuing out to the true summit. The rest of the park spread out clear and sharp in every direction, with what looked like Mount Shasta visible on the horizon to the north.

Another great day on one of the best peaks in the park — steep enough to earn it, with just enough snow left in August to make the mountain still feel like early summer up top.

Back up Lassen Peak again, an easy day on the legs and a beautiful one on the eyes — low clouds and fog drifting across the upper switchbacks on the way up, patches of lingering snow still tucked against the summit ridge in late September.

The clouds broke apart the higher the trail climbed, clearing to blue sky and sun by the time the summit came into view, Lake Helen and Emerald Lake showing up as small blue pools far below the rocky ridge. The benchmark disk at the true summit made for a good stop before working around the rest of the rock outcrops for photos.

Always a good time up here no matter how many times the trail gets repeated — the same steep, exposed switchbacks, the same rewarding payoff at the top, and this time a nice mix of moody morning fog burning off into a clear, sunny summit. Bumpass Hell's steam vents were visible drifting up from the basin below on the way up, a good reminder of just how much geothermal activity this part of the park still has, and a stop there rounded out the rest of the day.

The morning after Diamond Peak, I was back out early for the big one: Lassen Peak itself, the highest point in the national park and one of the largest lava dome volcanoes in the world at 10,457 feet. The trail starts right at the Lassen Peak trailhead near Lake Helen, already above 8,500 feet, so a good chunk of the elevation was banked before the first step.

From there it's about two and a half miles one-way, climbing through twisted whitebark pine and mountain hemlock on sandy volcanic cinder before the trees thin out and the trail switchbacks up a rocky, completely exposed ridge to the top. No shade anywhere above treeline, and the altitude makes itself known on every one of those switchbacks, but the trail is well-graded and never anything more than a steady grind.

The summit more than makes up for it. A faint whiff of sulfur drifts up near the top, a reminder that this is still an active volcano, and the view stretches out over the Devastated Area, Brokeoff Mountain, and a scattering of small lakes and lingering snowfields still holding on in early July. Looking south, it was easy to pick out the ridge over toward Diamond Peak, the little summit from the day before, now just one more wrinkle in the landscape below.

Standing on top of one of only two Cascade volcanoes to have erupted in the 20th century, with the whole park laid out in every direction, made for a great close to two very different days in Lassen — one a short scramble to a roadside outcrop, the other a proper mountain in its own right.