Lassen Volcanic National Park

Over my birthday weekend (last weekend), I went on a camping trip with my family! This has been something we've been talking about doing for a while, as the last time we went camping as a family was in 2000.

We went to Lassen Volcanic National Park, specifically staying at the Manzanita Lake campground. I love national parks and have been wanting to really push to see as many of them as I can. So I voted Lassen and everyone said that was fine! Yay!

View for the weekend (well, when we went down to the lake,
I forgot to get pictures of our set up at camp)

I decided, kind of stupidly, to drive up late on Thursday night instead of just getting up early on Friday. So I did and arrived at 11, got to bed by midnight, and then felt kind of like crap after getting up at my normal 6am time. Yeah, next time I'm just staying home and getting up at 6, because then I'd be there by about the time where I started feeling normal.

My main goal was to kind of drag my family on some hikes. First, a girl at my CrossFit class had taken a week and a half off and looked TERRIBLE at her first class back, so I was adamant that I exercise as much as possible as to not feel like she looked. Second, I love hiking. I think my family's main goal by the end of the trip was to find a casual way to disown me. They said that our next trip was going to be to the salt flats in Nevada so that I can't find any hikes. Let me tell you though, I'll find some hikes if it's the last thing I do.

My first victim dad and I had plans to go to Devil's Kitchen, but that was on the other side of the park and would require a two hour long drive to get to. Sounded great on paper, but we got up and thought that it would be a bit much. So instead, we decided to go to Butte Lake.

That's the trail

Inside the volcano!

Butte Lake was where we were thinking of staying, before we nabbed two campsites at Manzanita, so my dad wanted to see what we were missing. The draw for me was the Cinder Cone. The hike was only 2 miles out and 2 miles back, seemed mostly shaded, and only gained 800 feet in elevation. The pictures that I'd seen from the top were like none other. It looked like a different planet! So I was game, and my dad, who has been hiking their property (which is 1/4 mile and 400 feet in elevation), was game too.

What we didn't realize was that the footing made this hike TOUGH. It was like walking in deep sand at the beach all the way to the base of the Cinder Cone, which was all flat. Then we gained the 800 feet in elevation all at once, straight up the volcano. And the footing was much worse- it was deeper and because it was so steep, you slipped down as you were climbing up.

I hiked down there!

Me in front of the cinder cone. If I look like I'm almost dead,
it's because I am.

It took us way long to get up to the top, and I quite literally almost cried right before I made it (I thought it was much further lol if that's not a metaphor for so many things in my life...). But once up there, the views were amazing. I can't even describe it.

I walked down inside the volcano, because you have to, and then we were walking back down. It was downright fun to walk down the steep part because you were letting gravity do so much work. Back at the car, we couldn't stop talking about what an intense hike it was. My dad kept saying "I'm 64!" and I was so impressed with him. I don't consider myself *particularly* fit, but I'm certainly the fittest in my family. My dad has had some health issues but this made my concerns over him lessen, he's a rockstar.

More sunset at Manzanita Lake

Saturday my brother and sister-in-law were set to arrive by 10, but I had once again convinced my dad to go on a "short walk to the meadow" so I could "just grab a few pictures" before they got there. He fell for it and half way up the 1.5 mile (each way) trail that gained 700 feet in elevation (also all at once), he was starting to complain a bit. Apparently I'm not to be trusted and am rather annoying.

Luckily for me, the trail to Paradise Meadow is BEAUTIFUL and full of waterfalls, and the meadow itself is amazing. So when we finally got there (and knew we only had downhill to go on our way back), my dad was appreciative that I'd dragged him out. I couldn't quite see where the picture was taken from, but it was so smoky from the Carr fire in Redding that we couldn't really see anything at all. I've got a lot of work in photoshop to do.

On our way to the meadow

The meadow!

We arrived back at camp and my siblings wanted to go to the lake. I convinced them that kayaking would be fun, so my SIL took over entertaining-Megan-duty while my brother and parents hung out at the lake. We kayaked for an hour and I saw that the one photograph I had wanted to take was not going to happen. The smoke from the fire had almost completely obstructed Lassen Peak. It also probably took out my Sunday plans, which had been to hike to the top. Boo.

We played games that night and my mom smoked us at Spinner, a game that we used to play as kids. It was so fun to hang out as a family and relive some of the moments from our childhood.

Sunday it was my birthday! And for it, my family agreed to let me call the shots, which is apparently the last time they're going to do that because I guess I make "fun" a four letter word. We started out with my brother being coerced into SUPing with me. We got out on the lake and we could finally sort of see Mt Lassen a bit. It was beautiful. I challenged my brother to do some exercises on the paddle board and we did burpees, overhead squats with the oars, regular squats, planks, push ups, and sit ups. I was returned to the rest of my family and my brother ditched me for a beer.

Stand Up Paddle Boarding!

From there, we went on TWO HIKES because no one wanted to say "take a chill pill, Megan" on my birthday. The first one was to Cold Boiling Lake, a short hike (1.4 miles total and all flat) to the lake, where gas was bubbling up out of the earth. It was super cool! Though a little unnerving to think about how this is kind of an active volcanic area... uhhh anyway.

As we left there, we drove up to Lassen Peak to see the trail head. I was totally up for it, but the view was going to be completely smokey, so we opted not to do it. I'm for sure going back to hike it though. It's 5 miles round trip and gains like 1100 feet in elevation or something, you start at about 8,000 feet too, so it's kind of rough apparently.

Cold boiling lake, I got a video but not pictures of the boiling
bit of it

We drove back down the mountain to the Upper Meadow, which is actually where the picture I had wanted to take Saturday was. There was no trial to get to it, it was right off the highway. My dad heard me say "THIS IS WHERE THE PICTURE WAS TAKEN" and he was a bit miffed that I'd taken him on an unnecessary hike. Sorry dad!

We ended the adventure hiking Kings Creek Falls, a really incredible waterfall with a kind of insane trail to it. But once again it was so worth it, even if while hiking out, we had to climb up a steep staircase cut into the mountainside.

King's Creek Falls, I have much better pictures
on my camera!

We climbed down from there

My brother and I before climbing back up

On the way back from King's Creek Falls

We returned back to camp but on our way back, noticed that the smoke was clearing. I got back and BOOKED it out to the lake, running along the trail to take the sunset picture. I got it and it was amazing. I can't wait to edit it!

My dad and siblings made their way out there too, with my brother holding a beer and a floaty thing to go sit in the lake for a second. We then walked back the long way to the car and my brother, in flip flops, managed to cross the river while my dad, SIL, and myself had to walk around. We thought he got lost though, so we were positively SCREAMING his name as he was back at the truck rummaging in the cooler. 

It sounded like we'd lost our child or something. But no, it was my 30 year old brother. Par for the course, he got lost a ton as a little kid too, so it was definitely a moment of nostalgia screaming for him and having him chatting with some lady back at the parking lot. 

Yessssss

My brother in the lake that night

On Monday morning, we had breakfast and then began to pack up. My brother and SIL wanted to book it out of there to get home before bay area traffic started to get bad (too late, there's always traffic in the bay). I, however, didn't have to drive through the bay, so I took my dad to the museum that was right at the entrance to Manzanita Lake.

It was a super cute museum and I learned way too much about volcanos. They had a cute little gift shop, where I picked up a journal that had two pages per national park and then I also picked up a stamp and a stamp journal thing where you can buy stamps from each national park and put them in there. I also have a passport but I forgot it :( luckily I live close enough where I'm planning on dragging an unsuspecting victim up there to hike Lassen Peak sometime. I also want to go to Bumpass Hell, which is closed this year.

Overall it was a REALLY great weekend. I'm sad it's over but glad to be back to the internet. Hopefully I'll do a better job preparing blog posts next time I'm gone because this week was so busy I've been having to write them later in the day. Bad blogger. 

Camping at Big Sur

On Sunday morning, Kate and I packed our bags and drove two hours south of the bay to Big Sur to go camping!

I love Big Sur, it's one of my favorite places. A lot of other people feel the same way though, so ever since I started to work a 9-5, I haven't been able to go. My last trip was in 2014 when I was in graduate school and we went from like Tuesday through Thursday or something. Campsites fill up ridiculously fast on the weekends and now that I'm living further away, it's a bit harder to do a day trip. Not impossible, as Yosemite is about the same distance away and I'm considering doing a day trip there soon.

But with my 9/80, I can do a Sunday - Monday camping adventure! I was already going to be in the bay last weekend teaching a day at Kate's summer camp (Saturday, it was amazing but I was so tired) and had planned on staying the rest of the weekend anyway, so I asked Kate if she wanted to come camping with me. She said yes! I didn't really know what would be available, so I looked around and saw that Big Sur had ONE SITE LEFT for that night. So I grabbed it, obviously!

Um so all of these pictures are from my last Big Sur trip because
I haven't had time to do any photo editing since this trip. I'm sure
I'll put them up as a WW one of these days but for now, I'm okay
being kind of confusing. 

The river was flowing much better this year!

We drove down in the morning, getting breakfast and picking up some snacks/meals/drinks for the trip on the way. I didn't have anything on my list that I really wanted to do, other than go on a hike. I've changed up my fitness routine in the last week, so I was kind of really sore, but I also love hiking.

We got down there a little early so our campsite wasn't ready yet, so instead we went to the waterfall I have been wanting to go to for years. McWay falls is a waterfall right on the coastline that falls directly into the pacific ocean. The lighting wasn't perfect but that's what photoshop is for. But again, haven't edited any pictures yet, so here are some more from the trip I took four years ago.

I have this on canvas at my house!

One of my favorites

From there we went to the campground and wandered around the store (also picked up a magnet because I collect them from various places and some fire glowy stuff) before heading to our site and setting up. It looks the exact same from when I was there nearly four years ago, but the river is actually flowing!

We set up our tent and got everything all organized once as we could, including putting up my hammock. Then it was time for sitting still, not talking to each other, and reading books. I'm mostly through Charlotte's book and am... enjoying it in small doses.

After reading, we decided to go wander around. I really wanted a long exposure on the river, so we grabbed that before going on a short hike over to this fire pit area.

Back at the campsite we decided to make a fire. We played a board game, ate dinner, and made s'mores (all while talking about horses a bunch of course) before going to sleep.

Long exposure on the river

Hiking through the burned trees last time (2014), we hiked a
different hike this time so I didn't see these trees to see how
they have changed

In the morning, we packed up and drove to the parking lot near one of the trail heads. I had really wanted to hike Pfeiffer Falls, but that has been unavailable for a few years. Apparently they're doing repairs and it will be okay next year! So we hiked a shorter hike that promised to lead to a place called Valley View. It was a little disappointing to climb all the way up there only to find the valley covered in fog, but that was okay, it was still a great hike.

After that, it was just driving back up to the bay, where I then drove up to the peninsula to teach lessons and then back home.

I told Kate I had already taken this picture when I took it
again during this trip lol

This was my phone background for a long
time, it's weird to see it on the blog lol

Overall it was a great trip, if a little short! But Big Sur fills up so quickly that I think we were pretty lucky to even get the one night. Later this summer my family is camping together for the first time in 18 years, but we're headed north!