James has been very interested in volcanoes for months, watching documentaries and reading books about them, so once we booked our trip to California we knew we had to try and fit in a visit to Lassen. Luckily, Grambot and PawPaw are very good sports, and we were able to convince (with very little effort, honestly) Jenny and Sophie and their families to come along for the adventure!
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| Hat Creek at the Hat Creek Resort and RV Park |
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| If it wasn't a rushing river with warning signs, they'd have gone in, despite the water temperature |
Reading Amulet (courtesy of cousin Eli) and posing at JJ's Cafe
Gathering pinecones for the campfire (and toting specialty beers in backpacks...)
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| They were very hard to wake up this morning... |
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| James has been asking for a long time to go fishing and we thought a trip with PawPaw was in order |
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| He said "They can't see me if I do this!" James' fishing technique = the fish blind |
Checking out the obsidian in the walls
Hiking down to Manzanita Lake
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| Lunch break picnic at the visitor center |
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| Our 4 mile hike up to Chaos Crags was 2 miles straight up. 700ft elevation gain. |
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| Snow plant! |
We loved all the bright green moss. And the cool birds. And the dirt...
Taking in the view he worked so hard to reach
"Wait. We have to go DOWN to get to the lake?" And ephemeral snow melt lake ladybugs.
Only James and daddy went in above their ankles. Only daddy swam:
Quick, be chaotic! Chaos! Chaos!
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| Me and my girls! Just missing Robyn and Christina... |
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| Cora wanted to get in on the girl picture |
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| GIRL POWER! |
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| Nobody was too excited to hike back up the Crags and head down the mountain |
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| My handsome boys and an incredible view |
Mom and I were cold last night, so we visited the camp store to get Lassen sweatshirts
First patch of (dirty, old) snow we were close enough for them to play in
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| The park road was unexpectedly closed today, so we hiked a mile up the road to visit Sulphur Works |
Mama nearly had a heart attack watching them lean over this bridge to drop pinecones
Fumeroles and mud pots, we found you!
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| He was so pleased to finally see a mud pot (and couldn't believe how close he could get!) |
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| Family photo at the crook in the road at Sulphur Works |
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| (Don't worry, we didn't let them crawl through) |
Up the mountain just a tiny bit to get off the road and look down into Sulphur Works
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| Snowball fight #2 now that the Sanchez Crew made it up the road |
One more look at the mud pots before heading down for lunch
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| Bear box babies |
Lassen is such a beautiful park. I wish we could have shown it ALL to the kids, but they were plenty happy with what they experienced. Next time? Yosemite!
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