a field of lupines next to Lake Helen
Last weekend I visited my friend Sarah, who's spending the summer up at Lassen Volcanic National Park doing the field work for her research. She just recently decided to switch from a master's to a PhD (Congratulations Sarah!) so I think I will have many more opportunities to go up and visit her in the future.
A dense aspen grove
It was during an ungodly 100 degree weekend, so it was with excitement that I packed my fleece, knit hat, gloves, and picnic cooler to start the three hour drive up to the volcano on Saturday morning.
A view of Lassen peak
Sarah is an amazing tour guide, and we packed a lot of stuff into essentially a day and a half trip. We went to Manzanita Lake and had a swim and quiet contemplation on the banks (do you call the side of a lake the bank?).
Manzanita Lake
Sarah cooked a wonderful dinner Saturday night and then led a moonlit hike (it was just days away from the full moon) to "Bumpass Hell" the geothermal area of the park. I have no pictures for you because it was too dark, but it was really an amazing sensory experience. We walked the 3 mile round trip with our headlamps off the whole time, using the moonlight to guide us. I was told that the color of the water is a brilliant aqua, but because of the night-time nature of the hike it was really the sounds of the area that we got to appreciate. The glooop blooops of the mudpots, the loud constant hiss of the steam vents, the trickling of hot water running down the hillside. It was really primeval, enhanced by the fact that we were walking around on a boardwalk that had no handrails. It made me feel very exposed, we could get right up to the mudpots and kneel next to them, listening to the hot air force its way through the mud, bloop blooping all the way up (it's really the best onomatopoeia for what it actually sounds like).
The "bank" of the lake
On Sunday Sarah took me to one of her research sites (she's studying aspen). We hiked around it, mapping the aspen stands, wading through creeks, and climbing over underbrush. It was really quite exhausting, to tell the truth.
aspen grove
Finally, Sarah showed me some of the popular sites of the park, like Lake Helen and Kings Creek Meadow where we saw an amazing amount of wildflowers.
Lake Helen
Castilleja sp.
wildflowers at Kings Creek Meadow
Thanks Sarah!
2 comments:
What a beautiful tour. Best of luck to Sarah.
Wow, what a great trip-- I've been on a few night hikes, and it really is a fun and kind of spooky experience. It's so nice to have a tour guide so you don't have to waste the time thinking about how to spend your time.
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