Saturday August 15 – we left Central Point just after 9am. Acey’s mileage 65640.4 and Thor has 70609. About 90 minutes into our drive, Mount Shasta had a ghostly appearance in the distance!
And a while later, we had a better look at this 14,179 foot high beauty.
We will have just a 2 night stay at the Green Acres RV Park. We now have 19 states on our map of states that Acey has been to as we add California. We had triple digit temps on our arrival – 112 degrees! WOW!
Sunday we got up early for Sunday School on Zoom and then to worship with our Nashville church on YouTube. After that we thought we would see some of the local sights on our only full day in the Redding area. So, we went to see the Sundial Bridge which you can learn more about here (on Wikipedia) The unusual 700 foot bridge spans the Sacramento River where salmon tend to spawn.
The surface of this pedestrian bridge is metal and glass – but you cannot see through the glass.
There was a nice trail there that we could have gone on, but it was sandy and we were wearing sandals – since I am still wrapping my ankle, we decided that the trail was not a good idea. And it was a warm day too!
We had heard that Lassen Volcanic National Park was not far away, so we decided to go there spontaneously! We had not packed a lunch so we stopped at a small market for lunch and headed to the park, not realizing it would be cold there! The higher we climbed on our drive, the colder the temps dropped — down to 62F! We stopped at the camp store in the park and Linda bought a long-sleeved hooded t-shirt. We need to have extra clothes in the car! Here’s Linda with her new shirt – and a large piece of black dacite.
These rocks were pieces of the lava dome that plugged the volcano’s crater that was blasted away when Lassen blew on May 19, 1915. These rocks landed where we were standing – 3 miles from the peak! As we drove in toward the park – and away as well – we saw many basketball size rocks (and some larger!) scattered all over the landscape for many miles that must have been part of that blast!
This rock was still very hot 3 days later when B F Loomis came to the park and took many photos.
Lassen Peak = this looks almost like a painting!
Summit Lake – beautiful crystal clear water
King’s Creek
We opted to NOT hike the mile and a half down to see the King’s Creek Falls – definitely need to come back to do that!
These purple flowers were all over the park
The view from 8,200 feet – Lake Almanor in the distance
Lassen Peak – up close
Lake Helen
The colors of the water were stunningly beautiful!
The drive around the park was one beautiful scene after another!
We saw this large rock looking like it was precariously balanced on the edge at the Bumpass Hell Trailhead. We opted not to go down the trail to see the hydrothermal area, just not enough time today.
Brokeoff Volcano (Mount Tehama) to the left, Brokeoff Mountain to the right
The Sulphur Works hydrothermal area was right off the road with hissing steam vents and boiling mudpots.
We saw (and smelled!) this boiling mudpot at the Sulphur Works which was much larger than the one we saw at Yellowstone!
We will definitely need to come back and see more of this park another time! A few hours was just not enough time to see it! Our drive back to Redding was quite nice as well!
We will be driving through the mountains tomorrow on our way to Cloverdale on the Russian River!
Great detail on the chunk rocks flung from the volcano; 1915. Beautiful pictures