Day 8 - Cinder Cone

Butte Lake campground was my choice to stay so that we would have easy access to Cinder Cone, one of the most dramatic features of the park. The trailhead was just steps away from our tent, so even though Benna was a slow starter, we were in no danger of not making it to the top. The pre-hike photo!

The trail started out with a gentle incline, the surface very loose black volcanic sand, which made for somewhat difficult walking.

After about fifteen minutes we emerged from the trees to wide open space, and I realized that our timing meant we would be very exposed to the sun. Fortunately we had applied a lot of sunscreen and we wore our hats and sunglasses. There before us lay our objective!

In case you are wondering, that photo is not doctored in any way. The cone really looks like that! The absence of trees is explained by the fact that the eruption that created this landscape happened about 400 years ago, and the trees simply have not re-established themselves.

With the hot sun overhead, we trudged the half mile or so up the side. It was really tough walking, very steep with loose gravel. As we made our way around the side, mount Lassen offered itself up with magnificent views.

Benna was a trooper and although she did stop a lot and complained a few times, she was really happy to reach the top. We were both impressed with the fact that you can walk right down into the cone, it is completely dormant.

We walked around to the other side of the cone for lunch. From that side, we could look down onto the Fantastic Lave Beds and the Painted Dunes. These geologic features lived up to their names, they were totally cool.

The hot sun was heating the ground, but up on the cone there was a strong chill wind that began to gust as it got later, so we decided to get going. We took the trail down the other side, which was even steeper than the trail we had come up! This made the trip down a lot of fun, we basically slid down in a matter of minutes.

After reaching the base of the cone, we had to walk back around, and the trail brought us past a number of colorful dunes and volcanic rocks.

The trail eventually looped us back to our campsite. We were very dusty, but not particularly hot. We decided to take a dip in bathtub lake anyway, since there was not going to be another chance to do so. The water was not too cold but the air was chilly and breezy and of course basically zero humidity.

I told Benna it was "refreshing" but she said it was freezing.

After dinner we shared s'mores with the people from the next campsite, a man and his grandson from Sacramento. They were friendly and after chatting a while, the man said that it had been a blessing to meet us. Wow, cool, thanks.

After cleaning up, all four of us went down to the little beach on Butte Lake where we had a perfect view of the sky. There is no light pollution up there so we had a brilliant view of the Milky Way and the glorious sky overhead. We watched satellites and then about a dozen brilliant meteors before it got too cold to stay out any longer. Wow. Unfortunately I was not able to capture this last part on camera.

Another unforgettable day!