Living on Lassen Time

 Have you ever heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park? Neither had us before planning for this trip. After a quick Google search, it seemed like we had a lot ahead of us. The usual mountains, but also plenty of geysers, sulphur flats and other volcanic activity. Huh, who knew? 

Another thing we didn't know was that in mid to late June the main road through the park with the majority of the hikes and views is still closed due to about 15-20 ft of snow. Well that's okay, we have gotten used to adapting to our campsites! So, after driving around and enjoying the mud pits that we could, that's exactly what we went to do. 

Pulling up to our campsite, we immediately knew something was off. People were sitting around in their campgrounds and chit-chatting between different campsites! This is very different to the waking up at 4:00 a.m. and competitively looking for parking that we had come accustomed to at Yosemite. What we came to understand after a bit more nosy activity than we would like to admit, is that our campsite is right next to Manzanita Lake which is known for fishing. Our campsite was surrounded by fishermen, all of which excited to talk about their catches, their experiences and their sons' jobs. 

The next day, we decided to look into what we can do around the park: some light hikes were possible as well as renting boats. We had no business renting a boat, and opted to hike around Manzanita Lake! 

This hike is beautiful and short, about a mile long and flatter than a flapjack. After our hike, we looked at what the professionals were doing: nothing. They knew how to make a lake day. They sat near (or in) the water and appreciated the views. We decided to do the same.

Now we are no fisherman by any means, and don't know how to even get into fishing, but appreciating the reflection of Lassen Mountain on a lake is something we can totally do! After doing most of the hiking that we could, and appreciating the calm day at the lake, we headed back to our campsite. 

Just around noon!?! Oh brother! Living on Lassen Time is difficult, so we headed back to the campground to hang out like all the other early morning fishermen. We played some card games and just generally sat around hanging out. We aren't very good at this though and ended up rearranging our car and whittling wood for a campfire. 

That's another thing the pros do when living on Lassen time: enjoy a campfire! 

Through most of the trip we have just been cooking our hotdogs and s'mores on our camp stove (I'm sure as you know with varying amounts of success) but when in Lassen live like the fishermen, as they say. So, we got our campfire going and roasted our hotdogs and finished off our s'more supplies. Then it was off for an early bedtime before doing it all over again. Well at least the fishermen do that, for us it was off to the next park! 

We enjoyed the opportunity to take it slow in Lassen. After hustle and bustle in Yosemite and just general trucking it across the country, it felt nice to take a break and just look around us. We will be sure to try to do that more often.