We stayed for a week at an RV Park right on Lake Almanor in the town of Chester. It’s the largest reservoir in CA and was built and is managed by PG&E, with a hydroelectric plant at the dam.
Chester is near the Lassen Volcano National Park. We spent one day driving in and around the park to see the beautiful area.
Lassen is considered an active volcano. It has mudpots and steam vents. One mudpot is right along the road so we got a good picture of it. It’s sulphuric and boy did it stink!
The volcano erupted in 1914 and then twice in 1915. Three days after the first 1915 eruption a group of 6 men, including a photographer, traveled up to see the area and were amazed at the huge devastation area. The photographer got several really great pictures. They left early that afternoon and it’s a good thing they did because the 2nd eruption happened later that same afternoon! With the condition of the roads they most likely would have died if they hadn’t left.
There are several beautiful lakes in the park, a couple right along the road. People can swim and boat (no motorized craft) in the lakes and several lakes have campgrounds right on the lake edges.
In 2021 the Dixie Fire, which is the largest in CA history (to date) started about 40 miles away from the national park and much of the national park burned. It was interesting to see how in many areas the road through the park is the dividing line between what burned and what didn’t. The fire came really close to the southern Visitor Center and I included a picture showing how close the fire came.
The town of Chester didn’t burn but as soon as you leave the town limits you can see a lot of burn areas. W heard there is a town called Greenville near the southern end of the reservoir that wasn’t so lucky, over 200 homes were destroyed and most of the downtown area. We drove around Lake Almanor and down to Greenville. The town of Greenville still shows a lot of scars from the fire with lots of burned out brick buildings and empty lots. They’re busy repairing and rebuilding the town!
Here are pics of the national park and nearby areas: