Lassen Volcanic National Park (with lots of fun stops)
July 3rd – July 14th, 2021 (11 nights)
This was one of those epic Northern California summer adventures with the highlight being a stay at an otherworldly campground high up in the mountains surround by volcanoes and set on a beautiful lake. Throw in some underground lava tube exploration and geothermal boiling sulfur pools and this trip is a recipe for a lot of fun! And, best of all, it’s only about four hours north of San Francisco, right here in the United States!
Whenever heading north, our first stop is usually Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Jon and family. The ride from our home in San Diego is usually about 4 hours. But, on this strip, since it was the start of 4th of July weekend and a Saturday morning, we decided to leave really early to beat traffic. We left at 5:30 a.m. and arrived in Santa Barbara at 9 a.m. making record time (3.5 hours)! It seems not many people are on the roads this early! We had a great day with my cousin Melvin and even tried an excellent Mexican restaurant called Tacos Pipeye which serves fantastic tacos, mole chicken, and enchiladas, for a very reasonable price! We missed my cousin Jon and his wife Ida on this stop as they were on a Tesla drive trip out to Santa Fe, New Mexico, but we would see them at the end of the trip on our final stopover.
We usually break up the drive from Santa Barbara to Oakland with a middle stop in between (following our rule of driving no more than 4 hours per day), but since we wanted to experience 4th of July at my sister’s home in Oakland this year, we did the trip straight with just short breaks for gas. We arrived in Oakland at around 12:30 p.m. (after a 6 hour drive) and used wood boards to raise the rear of our tow vehicle so that our hitch cleared the driveway transition, allowing us to get our Scamp tucked away in the narrow side yard space between my sister’s home and the bordering neighbor’s fence. Since it was expected to be a very rowdy 4th at night, we felt like it would be safer in the driveway than sleeping on the street. And, East Oakland did not disappoint – the mostly illegal fireworks started even before sundown and exploded all night long! People were out on the street right in front of my sister’s home exploding firecrackers and igniting other illegal fireworks, so we were glad we weren’t sleeping in our Scamp out there this trip. Thankfully, with our ear plugs, white noise app, and the Scamp’s insulation, we were able to sleep soundly! We had a great time with our family in Oakland, including a nice walk on Alameda Island the next day.
We met our San Diego friends Alexis, Chris, and Ben at Anthony Chabot Campground on Sunday (only a 30 minute drive from my sister’s house). They rented a camper van and we arranged to have two adjacent campsites (#11 and #12) at this really woodsy campground overlooking Lake Chabot in East Oakland. Although the campground is very close to Oakland, it feels very remote (a 20 minute windy road entrance). Many sites are full hookup and under tall trees. There are nice trails for walking and bike riding, including some that go down to the lake. There is no swimming in this lake due to algae. We had fun with our friends, went on a hike down to the lake, and even had some s’mores by the fire! The next morning I was surrounded by a big group (rafter) of wild turkeys while I was writing my travel log at the picnic table! They didn’t mind my presence and were just intent on looking for food on the ground.
We left for Russian Gulch State Park the next morning, a campground along the Mendocino coast about four hours north of San Francisco. On the way, we stopped at the picturesque town of Healdsburg (just north of Santa Rosa in Northern Sonoma County) and had lunch in our Scamp. We spent a little time walking around the charming town center and window browsing the quaint shops. When we arrived at Russian Gulch State Park later in the day, we found our site #17 in an empty meadow, as it turned out the surrounding sites in the same meadow were closed during our visit. There are no hookups at this campground, but there are water spigots close to each site. There are great hiking trails here and we hiked the North Trail and Water Fall Loop Trail in the morning (which took us 3 hours for the 8 mile hike). The trail goes through redwoods and fern forests and features a small waterfall. In the afternoon, we walked the less rigorous Headland’s Trail (along the bluffs with spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean) to view the Devil’s Punchbowl. This is a 100-foot by 60-foot sinkhole basin created when a tunnel penetrating inland from the ocean collapsed. When the tide is high, the sinkhole becomes an explosive cauldron of sea water. Although our friends Alexis and her family couldn’t get a spot at Russian Gulch State Park, they did find accommodation at nearby Caspar Beach RV Park (just a few minutes’ drive from our campground). We enjoyed s’mores and hot dogs (and steak) with them (in that order)! They are great chefs and provide fun company! The next day we explored the coast including walking the quaint seaside town of Mendocino village, where I purchased a “Been Squatchin” tshirt (Big Foot / Sasquatch is a local legend in this area). We did not spot Sasquatch on this trip though. Note: we had no HD TV or cell phone service down at the Russian Gulch SP campsite. Instead, just a short drive up the hill to the parking spots next to the Ranger entrance booth provided cellphone service.
After a couple nights and fun times at Russian Gulch State Park, we left for Lassen Volcanic National Park (a 5 ½ hour drive: 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.). I find if we leave early in the morning on long drives and still arrive early, then it doesn’t feel like we’ve spent the entire day driving. There were a lot of curves and climbs driving from the coast, crossing the mountains, descending into the Central Valley (Redding), and then ascending again into the mountains to get to Lassen. Lassen Volcanic National Park is at over 6,000 feet above sea level. We stayed at Manzanita Lake campground which is right on a scenic lake with volcanoes in the background (including Lassen Peak). The first thing we did on arrival was dump ($8 honor system) because we had just stayed at Russian Gulch State Park without any dump station there. The dump station is right before getting to the entrance to the campground and was empty whenever we passed by. The weather was warm (in the 80’s). After we first arrived and had lunch, we went to a ranger talk close to the Loomis Museum (at the entrance to the park). Our site (#A17) was completely shaded with very limited sunshine (which helped tame the heat). This meant that we needed to move around our solar panels during the day to maximize our charging. We left the solar panels out overnight and did not have any issues with them being disturbed (or getting wet since the air was very dry). The spots are nicely spaced out, and although the campground was full, everyone seemed to have a good amount of room around their own campsite. We had to drive up the road about a mile to Mile Marker #14 in order to get a cell signal (there is a turn out with usually a few cars parked making calls).
There is a little trail to the lake from the campground and a nice walking path that goes all the way around its circumference. It takes about an hour to walk the full lake loop, which is a nice easy flat walk along the water. People were swimming, kayaking, and fishing on the lake and everyone seemed to be having a great time. We weren’t able to bring our inflatable kayak on this trip as our tow vehicle was full due to having to haul items up to Oakland for my sister. Although it was warm during the day, the nights were cool (60’s) and sleeping in the Scamp was very comfortable. We enjoyed watching movies at night (see article “How to Watch Movies in the Wild”). Our “Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution” saved us a lot of hassle and money during our three days at Lassen. Instead of having to completely decamp in the middle of our trip and drive the Scamp over to the Dump and spend and then set up our Scamp again at the campsite, we stayed put by using our portable jugs and dumped them along with our regular Black and Grey water on our way out of the park!
One relaxing and really fun thing to do at Lassen is to drive the 30 mile Northern – Southern route to the other end of the park, stopping along the way at various mile markers which have different scenic activities (it’s about an hour without stops each way, so allow at least several hours and take your time). It’s recommended to download the NPS (National Park Service) app at the Google Play store for free before you go and also download Lassen Volcanic National Park from within the NPS app into your phone so you won’t need an internet connection to access all the park information. It’s also a good idea to download audio files you can play on your phone about the park here.
There is a reasonably priced gas pump at the campground store (Regular Unleaded only), so it’s best to fuel up before taking the Northern – Southern route drive since there are no other gas stations anywhere close by. Along the way you can see Choas Crags (an area with volcanoes and rocks covering the ground due to a volcanic eruption 1100 years ago), the Sulphur Works (hydrothermal pit of bubbling stinky mud), various lakes, great views, ….. We spent a little time at the visitors center at the South side of the park relaxing before heading back (there are refreshments and food for sale inside the center). Another fun activity which doesn’t take too long is to drive to Subway Cave Lava Tubes (just about 20 minutes outside the campground). It was 102 degrees when we arrived at this lava tube but, after walking down the stairs into the cave, we experienced very cool temperatures (the temperature inside the cave remains a constant 46 degrees year round!). The night before leaving for our next campground, we hiked around Manzanita Lake under no moon to take some Milky Way images! It was pitch dark and we wore headlamps. We saw deer and some other night creatures along the lake trail! We were rewarded by a stunning Milky Way which rose above Lassen Peak and Manzanita Lake at around 10 p.m.! We dumped (including 3 Grey containers) before leaving early in the morning for Oakland.
After a four hour drive to Oakland, we reached my sister’s house around lunch time. We decided to set up the Scamp in the driveway again since it worked out so well on the 4th of July. After lunch we took a long walk along Alameda Island beach (watching some kite surfers) and then had A+ Burgers for dinner at my cousin Rebecca’s house in Oakland. We also played some card games and Qwirkle with our family before leaving for Washburn Campground in San Simeon the next morning.
Washburn Campground is about a four hour drive from Oakland and is located in the San Simeon / Cambria area on the coast. It is a “primitive” campground (only $20/night + $8 reservation fee), although there are water spigots here. For us, since our Scamp has a bathroom and we have solar panels, the type of campground really doesn’t matter too much if we are only staying two to three days. In any case, we filled up our Fresh tank at my sister’s house in Oakland before we left. We had site #W264 which had plenty of sun for our solar panels! The sites are well separated and the area did not seem crowded. The campground is high up on a hill with a nice view of the mountains and ocean below. We walked down to the beach from our campsite along the road and it’s only about a mile each way. There are also trails but signs warned of ticks with Lyme disease and recent mountain lion sightings so we stayed on the road. The campground area was overrun with “cute” ground squirrels and they were not very shy. Some even jumped up into the undercarriage of parked tow vehicles (not sure what they were doing under there). We made sure to keep our Scamp door shut so as not to discover any unwanted guests inside. Our San Diego friends were camping in the adjacent campsite (San Simeon Creek Campground) and we met them there in the evening for some excellent chicken burritos and salad! Washburn Campground / San Simeon Creek Campground has a Dump Station at the entrance and the charge is $10. Since our Grey tank was only 50% when leaving and we only had one more night left on our trip (and we also had our Holy Grey solution just in case), we skipped it and saved the money.
Our final drive before heading home to San Diego was back to my cousin Jon and Melvin’s house in Santa Barbara. After the three hour drive, we decided to go to Tacos Pipeye again with our cousin Melvin since we enjoyed it so much at the start of our trip! Once again, it did not disappoint! We also had a nice walk through downtown Santa Barbara before and after lunch. My vegan cousin Jon and his wife Ida were back from Santa Fe and treated us to a wonderful homemade dinner (risotto and Beyond Meat burgers) that night. And, we also got to see our cousin Carolina. The next morning we drove back to our home in San Diego (4 hour drive) and arrived early enough to get our Scamp cleaned up and ready for our next trip!
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