Journey In God's Amazing Grace: Hiking out around Butte Lake Campground

Sunday was predicted to have showers, so we anticipated another grey day, but we woke up to nice blue skies with a few puffy clouds! We decided to extend our stay another night at Butte Lake Campground, and, instead of driving back over to the main part of Lassen, we decided to do a hike closer to the campground.

We had noticed on Saturday when we drove to the day-use area near Butte Lake that there were signs for trails, so we started there... Butte Lake is low, so the boat ramp is not usable, but folks can carry kayaks or canoes down to the lake if they want.

A picture in the campground - beautiful trees and sky!

Does this tree make me look short?

We decided to take the Cinder Cone Nature Trail. Part of the trail followed the Nobles' Emigrant Trail: "Pioneered by William Nobles, this trail linked the Applegate Trail in Nevada to the Northern Sacramento Valley. During the 1850s and 60s, several thousand emigrants used this trail in their migration from the eastern United States." It is interesting to again join up with an emigrant trail (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/05/thursday-to-elko-and-california-trails.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/05/visiting-some-sites-near-wells-nevada.html).

The trail... it was a path on cinders - so almost like hiking in relatively deep sand in places. The forest in this area is very open - I don't know whether that is due to the wildfire that burned through last year or clearing having been done by the park service -- it was hard to know where the trail was in places because the ground was so clear.

We passed alongside the Fantastic Lava Beds. "Several eruptions of the adjacent Cinder Cone produced the Fantastic Lava Beds. The glassy fragments of quartz crystals were formed as the lava cooled. More slowly cooling lava permits the formation of more numerous and larger crystals."

Carl in front of the Fantastic Lava Beds. Wouldn't the emigrants have wondered at the sight of these mounds of black rock? The estimates are that the eruption that created these lava beds happened somewhere around 1650 -- that doesn't seem very long ago!

A recently cut tree -- there were a number of trees along the trail that had been damaged more severely than ones in the campground, so we think they had been cut to avoid them falling and causing injury.

We saw a lot of pieces of this mossy growth on the ground - we could see it growing on limbs up high - this was a limb that had fallen with the mossy growth on it.

Carl showing one of the large pine cones -- and behind it you can see some of the trees that have no green pine tags on them. It has been 10 months since the Dixie fire went through, we're thinking that these trees may not come back from the damage they suffered.

Cinder Cone - we planned to hike up to the top...

There is a trail and the park service asks that you stay on the trail. The camp host had encouraged us to take this trail. "Just take it slow," he said, "you can do it."

Starting up the trail...

A view back toward Butte Lake.

It may not look really steep, but the slope is at an angle of 30-35 degrees, as steep as possible without cinders rolling off the sides. The cone rises 750 feet above its base.

"Just take it slow."

"When you can see Lassen Peak, you're more than halfway up."

As we were hiking up, people coming down kept on telling us, "It is worth it, keep on going, but it is really windy at the top!"

At the top, view back toward Butte Lake.

Selfie at the top with Butte Lake behind...

... another selfie at the top with the caldera behind.

It definitely was windy; Carl didn't want me walking too close to the edge so I wouldn't fall off. We figured that some strategically placed windmills up there would power most of California! (just kidding!)

Southwest across the caldera to Lassen Peak

South across the caldera to Snag Lake -- those white patches are snow that is still up there just inside the caldera.

Another view of Butte Lake

Painted Dunes and the Fantastic Lava Beds

Looking down into the caldera - there was a trail down into the bottom with a spiral path outlined by rocks in the bottom. Another lady who was there at the same time we were highly recommended going down, but we decided we'd best not -- after all, it would require a climb back out again!