We took a day and drove southeast from where we’re staying to visit the Lassen Mountain Natl Park and Volcanic area.  The day was very cloudy and overcast unfortunately, but it was a real nice drive.

We were surprised to learn that Lassen Mountain exploded in two volcanic eruptions just in 1915 – which is a blink of the eye in geologic terms!

As we drive up into the mountain area it got colder and finally there was still a lot of snow on the ground.  We could only go as far as the “desolation area” and the rest of the road was closed until June.

The desolation area was what they called the area that was destroyed by the lava flow.  There are still lava rocks laying around where they landed when they were blown out of the mountain!

People lived in the area at the time of the eruption, one man was awakened by his dog and saw the mountain bulging and smoking.  He ran 3 miles to warn neighbors and they all would have died if they hadn’t gotten away as fast as they did.

He and some other people hiked up to see the damage 3 days after the eruption, and barely escaped again when it erupted again!

The mountain itself is fantastic – you can see that it was blown apart by a volcano due to the concave shape of it.

Here are pictures from our trip through the National Park and of the volcanic mountain, still covered in snow in early May!