Lassen Volcanic National Park map / NPS

While Lassen Volcanic National Park might once have been an undiscovered gem, according to Lassen’s superintendent Jim Richardson, it’s now a discovered gem. Smaller than say, Yosemite or Yellowstone, with parts still closed due to the 2021 Dixie Fire, Lassen should still be a destination on your national park bucket list. You can hike to the top of a cinder cone for amazing views in every direction, walk alongside hydrothermal wonders of hot springs, bubbling mud pots, and steaming fumaroles, and hike to the summit of one of the largest plug dome volcanoes in the world. You can walk around a quiet lake frequented by Canada geese, blue herons and other waterfowl over which Lassen Peak and Chaos Crags tower, gaze up at the sparkling night sky with little to no light pollution, and drive a park highway listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

All set for a visit? The National Parks Traveler Checklist for Lassen Volcanic National Park should help you with your plans.

Getting There

The nearest airports to the park are in Redding and Sacramento, California, and Reno, Nevada. From Redding, it will take a little under an hour to drive to the northwestern (Manzanita Lake) entrance. It’s about a three-hour drive from either Sacramento or Reno to the park’s southwestern entrance. Make sure your vehicle is gassed up before entering the park, because the only in-park location for gasoline is at the Manzanita Lake Camper Store, and you can’t always count on working pumps.

Area map marked with gas stations near Lassen Volcanic National Park / NPS

The closest opportunities for gassing up outside the park are at the communities of Old Station and Shingletown, about 13 miles and 18 miles, respectively, from the park’s northwestern entrance, and Chester and Westwood, approximately 30 miles and 44 miles, respectively, from the park’s southwestern entrance.

Lodging

In the community of Mineral (pop. approx. 250) nine miles outside the park’s southwestern entrance is the small motel-style Lassen Mineral Lodge. There’s a restaurant next door, a bar, and a general store for supplies.

A quick check of Vrbo and Airbnb shows cabin rentals anywhere from 14 miles to 22+ miles outside of the park in the vicinity of Shingletown, Chester, and Westwood.

Drakesbad Guest Ranch is the only motel-style lodging within the park, and as of this publication, it remains closed for the 2022 season due to the 2021 Dixie Fire.

Manzanita Lake Camping Cabins are the other “brick-and-mortar” lodging within the park. These rustic cabins have no running water, plumbing, or electricity and are available in one-room, two-room, and bunkhouse style. There are also four ADA accessible cabins offered. This was my base of operation during my stay in the park. My one-room cabin was neat and clean, with a battery-operated lantern (you might want to bring along some extra  D-batteries to keep that lantern working and maybe even a lantern or two of your own), fire extinguisher, table, four chairs, wastebasket and plastic liner, small wall mirror, plastic padded mattress (about 4 inches thick) on what amounts to (maybe) a standard-size bed, propane heater, locking door, and plenty of windows to let in the daylight (with blinds for privacy). Outside each cabin is a fire pit and picnic table. You can purchase wood for the fire pit at the Camper Store. There are two pit-toilet buildings available for the cabin area, and pay showers are located at the Camper Store. Reservations for the cabins are made via recreation.gov and it’s a good idea to book early – maybe even three – six months early, because there are only 20 cabins total and they are very popular. Booking for an early October stay, near the end of their operating season, ensured me of reserving the cabin of my choice for four consecutive nights.

The author's home away from home: Manzanita Camping Cabin 15, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

Manzanita Camping Cabin 15 interior, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

The park lists seven campgrounds, most of which require a reservation via recreation.gov. The Southwest Walk-In Campground near Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center is open year-round, but it is currently closed for the 2022 season “due to hazardous conditions from the Dixie Fire.”

A view into the Manzanita Lake Campground, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

Dining

You can purchase hot and cold food-to-go at the Manzanita Lake Camper Store near the northwest entrance, and the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the southwest entrance. The visitor center also has a café and indoor / outdoor dining areas (the café is currently listed as temporarily closed). Drakesbad Guest Ranch offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sack lunches, but is closed for the 2022 season.

To play it safe, you might wish to stop at a grocery store prior to entering the park and stock up on food items. While you are at it, don’t forget to bring along plenty of water. I brought my water in several gallon-sized jugs.

What To Pack

• You can check average temperatures for the park here. I visited Lassen during the first week of October. The weather was sunny and clear and the nights and mornings quite chilly. I’m glad I brought along a mix of warm- and cool-weather clothing: fleece, long pants, long-sleeved tees, down vest, wide-brim hat, knit hat, sunglasses, a sturdy pair of hiking boots, and slippers for the cabin. Lotion and lip balm helped prevent chapped hands and lips. Prior to this trip, I spray-treated my pants, tees, and photographer vest with permethrin as a precaution against ticks.
  
  
• If you decide to use the pay showers at Manzanita Lake Camper Store, remember to pack a bath towel, hand towel, washcloth, and plenty of quarters.
  
  
• If you are driving the entire distance to Lassen, and don’t want to totally rough it during your park stay, why not think about packing along one of those power station systems, like Goal Zero, Jackery, or Bluetti. I brought along my two Goal Zero power stations. The smaller battery system pooped out much sooner than the larger battery system, naturally, but for three days of my four-day stay, they powered my laptop, coffee maker, and hot pot, and charged my iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad.
  
  
• Remember to bring along your camera, extra charged batteries, and plenty of memory cards to record the amazing vistas you’ll see during your stay. Bring along a small cloth, too, for wiping down your camera equipment after a day in the park’s hydrothermal areas. If you can smell the sulfur (trust me, you’ll smell it) then particles are in the air that can coat your equipment.

Things To Do

The road through Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

• Drive the scenic, 30-mile-long Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway and stop at all 16 tour markers. Each stop provides some scenic view, historical, geological, or other interesting item of note about that marked spot. You can purchase the road guide Lassen Volcanic National Park: Auto Tours, Trips, and Trails by Larry Eifert, or download the NPS App to access 16 audio files corresponding to the tour posts. Remember to follow the speed limits through the park. The road gets pretty twisty and you never know when a furry friend might cross in front of you.
  
  

  Ready to tackle the last 200 feet of the Cinder Cone Trail, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

• Take a hike. There are many trails with varying levels of difficulty for all ages. If you feel like a bit of a workout, tackle the popular five-mile roundtrip Lassen Peak Trail - the trailhead of which is reached from a large paved parking area - or the four-mile Cinder Cone Trail located in the more remote northeastern portion of the park. Both will reward the intrepid hiker with amazing views. And a visit to the park is not complete until you’ve seen, listened to, and smelled the very active Sulphur Works just up the road from the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center and/or hiked the three-mile roundtrip Bumpass Hell Trail to the largest hydrothermal area in the park. For more leisurely walks, the very short 0.2-mile Devastated Area Interpretive Trail provides insight into that vicinity’s formation during the 1915 – 1916 Lassen Peak eruption, and the 1.9-mile roundtrip Manzanita Lake Trail is habitat for all sorts of water fowl in addition to black-tailed deer and little critters like chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels. If you enjoy waterfalls, there’s the 3.8-mile roundtrip Mill Creek Falls and three-mile roundtrip Kings Creek Falls trails.
  
  

  A view of Bumpass Hell, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

• Park your vehicle and count the stars in the night sky from the Bumpass Hell area, Manzanita Lake, or any other location with expansive views of the sky. Lassen offers an annual Dark Sky Festival which will be returning the summer of 2023.
  
  

  A view of Lassen Peak from Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park / Rebecca Latson

• With 200 lakes and ponds and several creeks, there’s plenty of room for fishing, non-motorized boating, and swimming. If you decide to take a dip, be aware there are no lifeguards, the water in these high elevations is very cold (as I was informed by a few who have jumped into Lake Helen for a quick wet-down), and you definitely do not want to dip your toes into the waters at the park’s hydrothermal areas.
  
  
• Join a ranger-led program to experience events from astrobiology programs to public bird banding demonstrations to snowshoe hikes. You can check out the offerings at Loomis Museum (northwestern entrance) and Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center (southwestern entrance).

Lassen In Winter

While most of the park road is closed to vehicles and it can snow up to 30 feet, Manzanita Lake and Southwest Area of the park are both accessible throughout the winter and there’s plenty of over-snow activities such as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding, and backcountry skiing / snowboarding. Just remember to dress for the weather, bring food, water, carry tire chains, and keep your gas tank full.

Know Before You Go

As you can tell from reading this checklist, there are several facility and trail closures due to the Dixie Fire. When making plans to visit Lassen, you should periodically check here to see what is open. If you want to bring your pet, know where you can and cannot take it within the park.

There’s plenty to see and do and learn at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Small wonder this “undiscovered gem” is now a discovered gem.