One of the nicest places to see the night sky in California is Lassen Volcanic National Park. If you have enough time and if you are visiting this area around Spring or early summer time, then you can visit few other waterfalls around that area as well. It will be a long drive from LA so you have to plan appropriately. It is almost 600 miles from LA and a good 240 miles from SF / Bay area.
Volcanic park
As the name suggests, this is a Volcanic National Park and hence the prime attraction of this park is the Yellowstone-like volcanic activity. Though it is nothing when compared to Yellowstone's scale and magnitude, this is a nice little / miniature representation of volcanic activity that could be seen there. You can find the same pungent sulphur smell in the air and similar terrain of multi-colored soil with high temperatures (~160 C), multi-colored pools. The trail leading to the area is the Bumpass Hell.
Bumpass Hell
This is an easy trail that will lead you to the hydro-thermally active area of the park. This trail is seasonal trail. It will be closed during most of the Winter and Spring due to unsafe hiking conditions; usually this trail opens around mid-June.
Elevation gain: ~300 feet (one-way). Starts with the descent. You will have to walk up while coming back.
Distance: 3 miles round-trip
Starting point: Bumpass Hell Parking lot.
Before you reach the Bumpass trail parking lot, you will encounter some nice emerald green pond and Lake Helen. I took some snaps in my mobile phone - Nexus 5 but unfortunately those are not in a recoverable status right now due to phone not booting up.
Below image is from Google and it looked exactly the same.
Went with one of the nicest groups for this trip. It was more like a family trip but with a group of 10 friends. Had clicked some nice pics of them in my DSLR. It all looked perfectly well in the small screen of my camera. They were all eager to see their good poses with nice sunset and beautiful landscapes but unfortunately I could not share any of those pics due to the fact that most of them were out-of-focus (double-facepalm). I am really really terrible in photographing people; that too at that time I was not so well-versed with my manual focus of my new 14 mm lens so I was not sure whether I was focusing at 5 ft or focusing at 25 - infinity so messed a lot of snaps. Only one or two landscape shots came out well. Overall, I was totally disappointed with those snaps! But it was still a wonderful trip with all those nice memories etched in my brain and few important lessons learnt with respect to photography as well.
Anyways, enough of detour, it is time to continue our journey..
Manzanita lake
A serene, calm lake with an ideal setting to enjoy the sunset with your favorite group. Few people were boating in the lake as well but I am not sure whether they had brought their own boats or whether boat rentals are available in that area. We did not venture into the lake. We just had enough time to sit by the shore and enjoy the sunset and clicking few snaps all around. We also tried going around the lake shore to meet the group of friends who arrived a bit later than usual; in that process, we met a small snake - be wary of them.
There are nice picnic spots around the lake that allows you to sit around and have some food and drinks (non-alcoholic preferably). There are dozens of camping sites available just across the lake. It recommended to make advance reservations, if you are planning to visit this during the peak season times. Camping related details can be found here.
Experiencing Chaos / Lassen peak
If I had to choose my night sky viewing spot in California, I would choose Lassen over Glacier Point. The sky was dotted with the stars. There were no signs of big settlements / civilizations for miles together and that helped a lot! We were not able to see the Milky way galaxy's arm may be due to the time of the year or even the time of the night which we visited but luckily the moon-rise also did not happen on that night at least until we left the park. It was just so wonderful to just look up and see those numerous stars.
There were other groups, who were well-equipped for star-gazing. They had come in with their chairs and probably refreshments to enjoy the night view. They were quite averse to the headlights of our cars and our whispers. We managed to stay as quite as possible and avoided illuminating the area as much as possible to give everyone a better night-sky viewing experience.
While driving in the night from Manzanita lake to the star-gazing area, we were driving with the car's top down - enjoying the full view of the night. At that time, a small bear cub darted across the road in the opposite direction from one of those bushes. Though it was small and scared, it scared us a little bit as well. You have got to be careful when the cubs are around because moms will be extra-cautious and will be willing to attack to protect them. We drove for some distance, pulled over and got the hood back on top. Even while star-gazing, we were cautious and was always on the lookout for bears / odd-sounds.
Other attractions in and around the park
The above mentioned areas were covered during single day starting at Bumpass hell and then to Manzanita lake and then to view the night sky with Lassen peak in the foreground. However, after spending the night at an Airbnb place, I had to leave next morning since I had to drive all the way down to LA. However, since rest of the group was from SF (and TX), they had some more time to explore the park.
They had planned for visiting the crater or the painted dunes area. The cinder cone hike details can be found here.
If you have a day or two more, then you can also plan to visit McArthur Burney falls and Mossbrae falls. There are pretty near to this area and can be reached via road or minimal hiking (Level 2-3).
This one is the McArthur-Burney falls (source same as the above link):
And this is the good ol' Mossbrae
Directions and stay
Lassen NP is almost 550 - 575 miles from LA and will require a solid 9-10 hours drive. Plan to take ample breaks in between and also plan for the LA traffic, if you are starting during the long weekends or peak hours. Once you reach I-5 North, you are set in that for most of those 550 miles.
It is approx. 240 miles from SF / San Jose area. Will take at least 4 hours to reach Lassen from the bay area. I would recommend a night stay even if you are planning to visit from the bay area.
Redding is a nice little town to stay. And from Redding, the other two places like McArthur-Burney falls and Mossbrae falls are all 50 - 60 mins driving distance as well so it will serve as a nice center spot for our trip. It has a good variety of boarding and lodging facilities and has some good restaurants as well.
You can even plan for camping near Manzanita lake or within the National Park for a single night.
Food and facilities
There is a cafe in the park and it serves American food - mostly sandwiches, burgers, juices and pizzas. It will be good to grab a bit before you head to Bumpass Hell hike or Cinder cone hikes. Most of the facilities will be open from late Spring to fall (April to October). Be prepared with your own food, in case if you are planning to camp or visit during winter.
Also some of the roads might be closed during winter due to snow / unsafe road conditions. It will be better to call and enquire the park before you visit any time during the months of November to March.
Gasoline is very limited and is also available only during specific times in summer in the Manzanita lake area. During off-hours and winter, one has to be prepared to drive anywhere between 15 - 90 miles to get to the nearest gas station.
Since this is also a national park, there will be $30 entrance fee for vehicles and $10 for individuals on foot / bicycle and other similar variations. I have got annual pass for the national parks area for $80 so it is good for entrance into National parks across the country for an entire year. If you are planning to visit at least 3 or more national parks (or the same national park for 3 or more times - like Yosemite during spring, summer, fall and winter), then I strongly recommend to buy one of these annual passes.
There is also a separate fee for camping within the park. As mentioned earlier, campgrounds require advance reservations especially during April to October.
Seasons in the park
The bumpass trail opens only by June end / July and the camping areas around Manzanita lake will be good during similar times as well. Some of the facilities around the lake and the camping grounds will close by October so be prepared if you are planning for over-night camping during fall / winter. Since Mt. Shastha is nearby I think most people will go there for skiing. snowboarding and other winter activities. I am not sure how much of the park will be accessible during the winter.
Things to watch out for
Always stay on the trails especially Bumpass Hell trail. The temperatures of some of the pools and the adjoining sand in the Volcanic area is not suitable for human interaction - stay as far away as possible.
Watch out for bears and other wild-animals. Stay away from them and don't try to feed them or take pictures with them. Carry a flashlight, if you are planning to stay up late in the night for star-gazing. Always have some refreshments handy especially while hiking during the summer season.
Take regular breaks while driving from Lassen back to LA or even SF.
There is a separate to-do list for Mossbrae falls but will update this list once I visit Mossbrae and Burney falls as well - hopefully at least by Spring 2017.
Have posted corresponding source links for some of those images. Rest of them are from my trips. Enjoy your visit to Lassen!
