Lassen Volcanic National Park

Before Mount St. Helen erupted in 1980, the last volcanic eruption on U.S. soil occurred in 1915 when Lassen Peak blasted fire and ash 30,000 feet into the air. The devastated area and its continuing evidence of volcanism is preserved as Lassen Volcanic National Park.

My hour-long drive on Wednesday from Redding, California was sunny, but blowing clouds and the mountains' high elevation created a blinding haze not long after I entered the park. I hiked the Ridge Lakes Trail past Sulfur Works, a mountainside spewing fumes, to two lakes high in the mountain forest while I waited for the clouds to break. Neon green and yellow fungi clung to the pines--both living and dead--along the trail.

Since the low cloud ceiling made any summit trail pointless, I doubled back to Bumpass Hell and went the other direction: down. This trail, named for a an early settler who severely burned his leg when he fell into a spring, leads visitors down a rocky path into a pit of boiling springs, bubbling mudpots, and smoking fumeroles.

The steam from beneath the earth mingled with the low clouds to weigh down the air with the smell of damp sulfur. That afternoon I drove to Carson City, Nevada where I stopped by the humble capitol building (just a block from a casino) and planned how I would explore Yosemite the next day.