We got up early and enjoyed the breakfast served at the Bidwell House. The couple running this use to live in Lake George. They also run a restaurant called the Red Onion. We ate there last night. It's on the lake. Nice views. Good food.
We met a gentleman who gave us advice on the best route to Lake Tahoe and a recommendation on where to eat. He owns a house in Carmel, two of them along Lake Alamanor and another somewhere in "the valley." We surmised he has some money at his disposal.
Our main objective today was to hike the Bumpass Hell trail named for Kendall Vanhook Bumpass who discovered the thermal features in the region and fell into one of the pools of water. It cost him his leg. I guess that's why it's Bumpass Hell.
The trail is spectacular. Great views of the park, the valley, wild flowers, lakes and the mountains. The trail guide says the it's 1.5 miles into the thermal features and the same on the return trip. But the GPS tracker in the phone says we hiked 5 miles. Take your pick.
Still some haze in the distance from the fires, but overall, a much clearer sky today.
We couldn't really see Mount Lassen on Thursday, but it was very visible this morning.
One of the lakes the trail skirts.
That's the trail surface. Kind of chunky. Kind of dusty. The drop off over the right edge is significant so it's important to pay attention and stay on the trail. We made it down and back with no problem even though the trail is at 8,000 feet.
That's Brokeoff Mountain in the distance. Not Brokeback. It's also a volcano and when it erupted a chunk of the mountain broke off.
There were huge fields of lupin. The aroma was powerful and pleasant. Snow doesn't leave this trail until about July 1 so there are spring flowers in bloom.
Another view of Mount Lassen.
Once you get to the end of the main trail you descend about 350 feet into this hydrothermal area. Very active and very beautiful. The hike back up those 350 was not all that pleasant since we are sea level humans, but we made it.
This mud pot is really active. It's throwing and spewing everywhere. The park service had to rope the area off and push viewing back a bit because from the normal viewing area if we stood there we'd get boiling mud thrown on us.
Emerald Lake, our lunch spot. A lovely breeze. The water is greenish blue, probably influenced by the runoff from the mountains. No fish that I could see.
Tomorrow morning we head to Lake Tahoe.
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