I had never heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park until I moved to California.  It’s one of the smaller parks and some refer to it as a smaller version of Yellowstone.  I would say Lassen is unique treasure, all on it’s own.

The drive was about four hours.  Unfortunately we had a late start, so we pulled in at about 10pm.  We stayed at the Manzanita Campground, which is in the northern part of the park.  We have been hear once before, and we stayed at the Summit campground.  I would recommend either.  Both campgrounds are close to a lake, although it gets cold up there, and we decided avoiding the lake was best!

We had time for two hikes, and due to the crowds and my bad knee, we were a bit limited in our choices.  We hikes about 3 miles to Paradise meadows the first day and hiked towards Echo Lake.  Echo Lake is in a hole, so we decided to hike along the ridge and avoid any steep downhills.   Although it was lovely,  every snack stop we were swarmed by bees, so relaxing may not be the first word I use to describe this hike!

I hope you enjoy our short weekend!