Day 38

I was up early ready to pack up our canvas houses and hit the road for our next spot. We had a relatively easy drive through small towns and national forest so Dave drove while I tried to catch up on editing pictures and posting. We decided to skip any stops and head straight to Lassen Volcanic National Park to enjoy the area. It seemed like the kids might need a down day to relax and play too. We entered California with a very different, quiet reaction than the first time about a month ago. While I am looking forward to being back home the reality is setting in that it will be in less than 2 weeks!

Our first stop in the park was the visitors center for the park movie and hiking advice.  The movie was interesting teaching us more about volcanoes. This park is one of the few areas in the world where all four types of volcano can be found—plug dome, shield, cinder cone, and stratovolcano. It also doesn't have any glaciers but instead has 14 permanent snow fields. Lassen Peak is the largest plug dome volcano in the world. There are also mud pots and other hydrothermic features in the park that we would drive by the next day.

As we drove through the park I was hoping to get a get view of the peak for a picture. Since we weren't hanging around for a day to hike I wasn't sure that I would see it again after the entrance. It did peek out from the trees at one stop.

Dave and I are curious why this isn't a more popular national park. It was small but definitely has a lot to offer. I was disappointed we were only staying here one night and I will absolutely be back!

We were definitely returning to warmer days so after we set up the kids decided they wanted to swim. The lake next to our campsite looked refreshing and was sprinkled with people swimming and paddle boarding.There was a perfect log floating in the lake where the kids got in so they were able to put their log rolling practice to the test. Except for Ryan accidentally falling in no one actually swam as the water was quite cold, especially in the shade.

Our site was still hot in the sun so we decided to walk to Grammie's site to cook dinner. There was a nice trail between our campgrounds around the clear little lake the kids tried to swim in. It also had a tiny little view of Lassen Peak.  I was excited for a picture in the early morning with a quiet, calm lake and maybe even a little sunrise colors the next morning!

Grammie had us a nice fire ready after dinner where the kids made s'mores and we talked about our plans for our next stop - Yosemite National Park. It was one I was looking forward to except for the sheer amount of people that would be there.  We had a long drive ahead of us the next day so we decided to get some sleep and pull out early in the morning. I was excited to drive through the rest of the park in the morning!