Falls, Fire, and Ice

Well, we caught up with our WIN friends in Burney, CA. It's great to see friends on the road and have a support group. There are only six of us right now, but more will be joining as we go along. With a smaller group, it is easier to find places to park and right now we're scattered around an empty lot in Burney. When we park in a town like this, it's surprising how much we contribute to the local economy. In addition to groceries and gas, we have all done our laundry, a couple went to the tire store, we ate meals out, and I even broke down and bought a new pair of reading glasses. I know my lost glasses will show up, but I figure I can use two pairs anyway.

Ron and I went to see McArthur-Burney Falls State Park, which the others had done before we arrived. The park is the showcase for the lovely Burney Falls.


This waterfall is very unusual in that water comes over the top, but also right out of the cliff wall.


Another day, Ron and I shuffled off to see nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park, which neither of us had ever visited. Unfortunately most of the park road was still closed with snow (SNOW! Are they kidding?) But it was very pretty - maybe more so with the snow.

We started in the very interesting visitors center as any good tourist does. There were pictures there taken of Mt. Lassen erupting in 1915. Really something.

There are actually four types of volcanoes and Lassen NP is special in that it has all four types. But if you want to know what they all are, you'll have to go watch the movie in the visitors center yourself.

Although it's not a great picture, I had to post this shot of a Steller's Jay. Look at that neon blue.


Heading up the 10-mile section of park road that was open, we first passed Chaos Crags and lots of volcanic rock.


'Hot' rocks like this one were blown out of Mt. Lassen on May 14, 1915. As the hot lava rocks careened down the mountainside, they touched off a snow avalanche. The avalanche carried this 300-ton rock five miles from Lassen Peak to its current location. Ron agreed that it was, indeed, hot.


Here's Mt. Lassen, clouds and all.


At the end of the 10 miles of open road was the Devastated Area trail. Hum . . . looks like a problem.


Is this the trailhead?


Hey, nothing stops us.


We returned to the visitors center and took the trail around Manzanita Lake where we saw this family of Canada geese. I'm not a fan of the over-populated Canada geese, but even they are cute when young.


I had hopes of getting a good shot of Mt. Lassen with the lake in the foreground, but when I uploaded my pictures to the computer, I lost a bunch. Note to self - never delete the pictures off the camera until you're sure they all uploaded. Anyway, this is the only lake/mountain picture that was saved. This is Chaos Crags with Manzanita Lake and some nice fisherman.