A weekend in Lassen National Park

If you are in Bay Area, California and looking for ideas for a weekend trip, the Lassen Volcanic National Park is a great choice. With many alpine lakes, hiking trails and hydrothermal features, it has a lot to offer to everyone wanting to spend a few days in nature.

Compared to Yosemite National Park, it is lower on the popularity index, but that also means it is less crowded and there is a higher chance of finding an accommodation inside or near the park.

It is about 4-5 hours drive from San Francisco. Depending on which one of the four entrances you pick, the drive duration will vary.

Where to stay in Lassen?

There are eight different campsites within the Park with varying level of facilities. Most campsites offer first-come, first-serve sites as well as reservable options. Manzanita Lake, Summit Lake, and Juniper Lake campsites are the most popular ones and they can get filled pretty quickly. Advance reservations can be made here.

If you prefer to stay in a lodge, Manzanita lake campground has cabins which are pretty reasonably priced. For more upscale lodging option, you can check out the Drakesbad Guest Ranch.

During our trip, we had a reservation at Christie Campground which is outside the park but we decided to stay in Manzanita Lake Campground as we were able to find a site on first-come, first-serve basis. The trick to get ting a site is to reach around the time when people are checking out – for most campsites the check-out time is noon.

 Things to do

You have a variety of options to pick from like hiking, kayaking, a picnic by the lake, night photography and so on. Here is how we spent our weekend for you to get some ideas.

We reached the northwest entrance of the park around 11:30 am. Although the sign at the entrance showed that the campgrounds were full, we decided to ask the park ranger if there is any possibility of finding a first-come, first-serve campsite. They asked us to check Loop D in the Manzanita Lake Campground which was just about half a mile away from the entrance.

We drove to the campsite and noticed a few folks packing up. One of them told us they were leaving and the campsite is available so we paid the fee at the self-registration station and got a tag for the campsite. I highly recommend this campground as it is right next to the lake and has many amenities like flush toilet, shower, coin operated laundry, kayak rental, a small cafe and lakeside parking.

Manzanita lake is gorgeous so we decided to spend some time relaxing by the lake before making plans for the rest of the day. We picked our cooler and our lunch and walked along the trail to find a quiet spot by the lake side.

After spending a couple of hours there, we decided to explore the rest of the park and started driving on the road that connects the northwest entrance to the southwest entrance. The map we got at the park entrance had clearly marked points of interests which we found super helpful. You can access it online here.

We drove past Chaos Crags which is a popular spot for night photography and decided to come back at night. The next stop for us was Kings Creek where an impromptu hike got added to our plan. It is an easy to moderate hike which ends in a beautiful waterfall.

From there we drove towards Bumpass Hell but got distracted by this beautiful lake, Lake Helen, which was partially frozen even in the month of June. It makes for a perfect picture spot with Mount Lassen in the background.

Bumpass Hell is right next to Lake Helen but it was closed when we visited so we decided to head to our campground and do some sunset photography by the Lake.

You can walk on the Manzanita Lake trail to reach Lassen Peak Vista Point for a great view of Mt. Lassen with its reflection in the lake during the sunset.

After the sunset, we walked back to our campsite to enjoy the campfire and prepare our dinner. Late at night, we drove to Chaos Crags to do some night photography. It was a night before the new moon so we were able to see the milky way as well a a sky full of stars!!

Next day, we packed up by 11 am and started driving towards Butte Lake where the Cinder Cone trailhead is located.

About 50 minutes drive from Manzanita Lake, Butte Lake has plenty of parking options as well as facilities like toilets.

Cinder Cone is an out and back hike with a distance of 2 miles one way. It’s about 1.2 miles to the base of the cone and then a climb to the top of the cone. The climb to the top is pretty steep (~800 ft elevation gain) but is totally worth the view. Hiking poles are highly recommended but not absolutely necessary. Make sure to carry about a liter of water per person as well.

Overall, it was a great weekend packed with a bunch of activities. We do want to go back to climb the Lassen Peak and explore some of the hydrothermal features which we could not get to this time!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions for us!