The route through Lassen Volcanic National Park just opened last weekend, June 22.  This area of the Cascades got 133% of the normal annual snowfall and Spring is arriving late.  The bummer part: probably 2/3 of the trails are still snow covered and impassable without special gear; which we do not have.

The upside: scenery is wonderful.

In sunny forest meadows there are bursts of color as wildflowers erupt along the edge of the retreating snowpack.  Brilliant white patches of snow provide accents in the rugged terrain of volcanic rock and a blanket of rich green pines making the ordinarily magnificent even more awe inspiring. 

A stroll around Manzanita Lake leads us through dense forest where the quiet is interrupted only by the chatter of birds overhead, along a babbling creek, and beside the crystal-clear waters where mother ducks and grebes and ever vigilant coots call out in alarm to warn of our presence.  Black tail mule deer keep a watchful eye on us as we pass.  We spot the regal silhouette of a Bald Eagle.  There are tiny bufflehead ducks – we learn later that they are one or two days old – huddled in a pile on a boulder out in the lake.  Mom is patrolling nearby.  

The drive through Lassen brings spectacular mountain views, smelly sulfur geothermal features, a snow-covered meadow cut through by a meandering stream, glacier blue waters of the thawing alpine lakes, and thundering creeks swollen with snowmelt. 

This is a pretty good place to slide back into the great outdoors.