Lassen Volcanic National Park

Before John and I were married, we took these long road trips on random windy roads just for the sake of exploring. After we got married, however, those experiences went to the wayside (kind of like my interest in playing card games - I can be fair that we were both a bit misleading in our interest in certain hobbies). So, yesterday, when I proposed taking a less than direct route to Redding, I was surprised that John was game.

It was a fun drive, we drove by one of Jodi's favorite places, Lake Almanor, and the adorable little accompanying town called Chester. When I looked at the route I noticed that there was also a national park nearby that supposedly had some pretty cool Yellowsone-like volcanic features. I thought this would be a stretcher for John to try, but with a little bit of "kid influence" - he took us up the mountain road. It took even more convincing that the three mile (round-trip) hike to "Bumpass Hell" would be worth it, but, once again, caving to the pleas of the kids - he was gung ho. Thank you John, because the experience was so worth it.

Having spent an entire summer in Yellowstone, I'm a little biaed of all that that place has to offer. But, I'm willing to admit, Lassen had some pretty cool features itself. Stuff that certainly impressed the kiddos. As we laughed, I think it was a much more memorable experience for them than seeing if the Gap store at the Shasta Outlets has anything good on sale..... (besides, we can check that out tomorrow!) Here are quite a few pictures of steaming sulfur, boiling mud, and other geothermal oddities that has us thinking, "God is so creative".