The first place I went was Sulphur Works. The signs were also still covered in snow (it must have snowed the night before I arrived), so I had to wipe them off to be able to read them. What a change from south FL!!! LOL
The extinct Brokeoff Volcano (active about 600,000 years ago) consists of Brokeoff Mountain, Mount Conard, and Mount Diller. With the poor visibility due to fog, you cannot see these peaks.
Sulphur Works is at the old volcano's core. Even though there's no more active magma, the hydrothermal system is still very active. You can hear hissing and see the ground bubbling, boiling, and steaming. There are warning signs to stay off of the ground and on the boardwalk. The ground is very thin and every once in awhile someone ignores the danger signs and steps on the ground. The foot goes through the thin surface into the scalding water and he/she ends up in the hospital.
I also had wanted to hike Bumpass Hell, but that was closed off due to snow. Despite that, I started up the cliff toward Bumpass Hell as there are some great overlooks of the peaks, but since there was some snow on the ground, I used a pullout to turn around and headed to the other side of the park.
On the way, I saw about 30 old classic cars on a road trip. Here are the last 2 stragglers.
On the other side of the park, the road was open until Devastated Area, where there was a 1/2 mile interpretive trail, showing evidence of the May 19, 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak. Just 3 days later, Lassen Peak erupted again, causing a lot of damage and devastation (hence the name).
This is Lassen Peak.
This is red dacite (volcano rock) from 27,000 years ago when Lassen Peak first erupted. This, along with all of the other rocks and boulders you see, got here (3 miles from the peak) from an avalanche following the 1915 eruption.
The forest and all life in this area was instantly destroyed from the avalanches and mudslides from the 2 back to back eruptions.
You can see from this image taken in 1925 how much was destroyed, however, the part that is circled is a crater that protected a small forest - the only that survived.
This is that crater today, (to the right of Lassen Peak) and you can see that the forest is rebuilding.
Three of these rocks (black dacite, light dacite pumice, and banded pumice) were created in 1915 (less than 100 years old).
These other two (red and gray dacite) were from the previous eruption 27,000 years ago.
Three days after this rock was ejected from Lassen Peak, it was very hot to the touch.
Most of these rocks scattered around are black dacite, which were pieces of the lava dome that plugged the volcano's crater. Pressure from gases inside the volcano shattered the dome on the 19th. These hot lava rocks came careening down the mountainside, setting off a snow avalanche that carried the rocks to this area 3 miles away, where they cooled off.
In this boulder, you can see basalt patches in the black dacite. These are called "quenched blobs", which were formed during the molten stage, when basalt magma mixed with black dacite magma. The dacite is cooler than the basalt, causing the basalt to cool suddenly
A lot of the rocks cooled from the outside in, causing them to fracture and break into pieces. As someone who likes puzzles, I could probably spend a day trying to put the fractured rocks together into a boulder.
Past the trail was the Noble Pass, and a marker on a rock to memorialize it.
On the way back to the park's entrance, I pulled off a few times to capture some pictures of the volcano.
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