May 17-18 - 2018 Shingletown, California

Thursday, the 17th, we moved north from Bodega Bay to Shingletown, still California (250 miles/ 400 km). On the way we drove through Napa Valley (known for its huge production of wine). For quite a while we were surrounded by fields of vines.

For the first time we didn’t have to spell (stave) our name at the campground. They just said “like the mountain” 😊.
We are very close to Mount Lassen, Lassen National Forest and the Lassen Volcanic National Park.
The area is named after a Dane (but no relation whatsoever (ikke familie). Peter Lassen emigrated, around 1830, from Farum in the Copenhagen area.
His claim to fame is that he created a trail to California, off the main California trail, during the goldrush.
Supposedly a shortcut, but that can be argued.
He was murdered in 1859 either by Indians or by one of his partners. Nobody knows for sure.

 

Mount Lassen / Lassen Peak

It would have been very interesting to be in Hawaii these days with all the volcanic activity, but that is not really an option.
So, Friday, we checked out Mount Lassen (Lassen Peak), which is one of a few active volcanos in the continental US. Active may be an overstatement though. The last big eruption was in 1915, and it was the last one to erupt (i udbrud) before Mount St. Helen, Washington State, erupted in 1980. (Those two were the only ones to erupt in the 20th century.) Mount Lassen has the biggest lava dome (lavakuppel) in the world.

Part of the park is still closed off because of snow, but we were able to get close enough to what we wanted to see.

There are many traces (spor) from the 1915 eruption (udbrud).

This rock was moved 5 miles (8km) from the crater by the landslide
and was still hot when it was discovered 40 hours after the eruption

Some lava rocks splintered when they were cooling off

Lots of traces of the eruption when you go off trail an into the woods

You think of rocks being millions of years old. These are only a hundred years old - created from the lava in the 1915 eruption.

The park also had many spectacular views of the mountain and its surroundings. 

 

I thought we were done with waterfalls, after having seen Niagara Falls 😊, but the camp host at our present campground insisted that we went to Burney Falls. It is located in a California State Park about 30 miles/50 km north of Mount Lassen.
As the tourist information says about the fall:
At 129 foot / 40 meter it is not the highest in California. Not the largest either, but possibly the most beautiful. It was well worth the trip. Not only does it fall in two impressive streams from the river above, but it is also seeping through the cliff wall about a third down from the top on both sides of the falls.
They may just be right that it is possibly the most beautiful in the state.

 

 

 

 

Written by JJ