We recently completed our first three day / two night backpacking trip at Lassen Volcanic National Park, and I'd like to share a few pictures and our experience.
The Park is Massive!
Our original backpacking route changed due to heavy snow covering highway 89(red line on the map) in July. We decided to explore the east side of the park and took the following route around the most beautiful lakes.
- Butte Lake
- Snag Lake
- Rainbow Lake
- Lower Twin Lake
- Upper Twin Lake
- Echo Lake
- Little Bear Lake8
- Big Bear Lake
- Silver Lake
- Feather Lake
I've done a lot of camping before, and when it comes to backpacking it's a whole other experience, the main thing is you will be carrying everything with you the entire time. What you choose to bring must be necessary to reduce the weight on your pack.
Food
Our food choices were simple, no fancy barbecues and marsh mellows, we had a tiny gas burner that we used to prepare freeze dried food, oatmeal, pasta and of course coffee!
The trails we decided to take were completely devastated and unrecognizable as trails. If we did not have the Pro All Trails app ($10 a year) installed on our phone with GPS, we would have been lost. We walked off the trail over 20 times during the hike, as some areas were completely covered in snow with no trails to follow.
Swimming
Upper Twin Lake was fantastic it's completely private, and off the beaten trail, we took the time to have a delicious pasta lunch, go for a refreshing swim, rinse our clothes, and use our water filter to collect some fresh water from the nearby snow melt.
Camping
We decide to not bring a tent, as it added a lot more weight. Instead, we took a small mosquito net and some paracord to hold it up. We camped at a part of the park that was completely burned five years by a fire called the Reading Fire. It was truly an amazing place to sleep, as our view of the night sky was open and clear.
Cinder Cone
During the end of our trip, we hiked to the top of Cinder Cone, it was quite a hike! The volcanic rock was like sand, and you would end up taking two steps forward and sliding one step backward. Once we reached the top, the view was amazing.
I hope you enjoyed our pictures and story about our wonderful backpacking adventure at Mt Lassen, it's truly an amazing place, and what I shared is only a small part of the overall park, our next stop is hiking to the peak!
that trip looks intense. Especially the cooking part. I don't know if I could handle that. Beautiful park though
Nice Post- Thanks for Share!
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STOPReally cool! Look forward to following you and seeing more adventures
Lassen is an underrated National Park. My Boy Scout troop did a 50 mile back in the 90's that I need to revisit someday soon. We had the exact same experience with Cinder Cone as you did; in fact, peaking Lassen was easier than CC. Thanks for sharing and bring back great memories from my youth.