Lassen is undoubtedly the most underrated national park in the entire park system. It calls to us each year and without fail each year we discover some new corner of the park that we have never discovered before and that absolutely needs to be explored. 

I’m not going to do it, because it would be weird, but if I did write a love letter to lassen I’d tell it; my family has so many amazing memories here, it’s home to one of my favorite campgrounds on earth, my whole family fondly remembers the cinder cone hike as peak happiness, your forests are beautiful, the fire scars will never heal in my lifetime but they add character and I love you just the way you are, your forests will come back stronger for my grandkids, your uniqueness is nearly unrivaled and your crowds are a thing of national parks past. I’m not gonna do it, because that’d be weird.

The park is one of the few places where you can see all four types of Volcanoes. You can swim in a pristine mountain lake right at your campsite. You can hike up volcanoes and you can find a variety of geysers, boiling springs and mud pots. It looks otherworldly in spots. My wife’s geology weirdness gets dialed up a notch when we get here.

This year we got to stay with my childhood friend and the grandparents who joined us for the past four nights on the road. We hiked the Bumpass Hell Trail, saw a few other sites, visited the visitor center, and otherwise relaxed in forested cell phone dead-zone heaven. 

We almost decided to spend an extra few nights backpacking here as there are no actual set reservations for the next eight days, and the current plan is extremely optimistic and a bit nerve racking. We would have had to leave the mountain and return to get supplies and permits and thus we ventured on with plan A, ready to return soon. We found a new corner that needs to be explored.