The second major outdoor trip of the summer was to Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. As with the prior trip, the camping reservations for this trip were made 6 months prior.
This was a location that M1 and I had driven past on our return drive during our epic 2022 adventures, but he didn't feel up to stopping at that time. Given that it's about 6 hours from our home and my local cousin suggested we take a joint trip to potentially see distant family in the Mt Shasta area, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine the two destinations, while also trialing M2 on her first non-infancy roadtrip.
The good news is that in general M2 did great on this trip and it gives me high hopes for potential opportunities in the coming years.
Day 1: The kids and I drove from our home to Manzanita Lake Campground, where we stayed for two nights with my cousin and her daughter. We stopped at the Riverfront Park in Grants Pass for lunch and play time (playground, water play, river access, shaded areas), which was a great location on a hot day. I haven't spent a ton of time in Grants Pass and from what I saw, I'm hoping to go back to check out more (including the jet boat tours with M1).
We arrived to the campsite during the late afternoon and were able to get our tent set up and mostly settled in before dinner. I have to say that I quickly realized that tent camping with a toddler AND a 7 year old is a whole other can of worms and not something I'd truly want to do solo.
Soon after dinner, M2 decided to head out for the nearby lake, which was her longest "hike" to date, but it was great to see her exploring and for M1 and I to check out the lake too.
It didn't take long for me to realize that this was not my favorite campsite. Each site is fairly stacked on top of each other with no real vegetation separating campers from their neighbors. As can also be the case, we happened to have a group (in a non group site) that didn't respect quiet hours, so getting the kids (and ourselves) to bed was a bit of a challenge. There are a couple of other camping options in this particular park, but the only other site I saw (Summit Lake) seemed to be pretty similar in design. We were at least fortunate that our site backed up to the campground boundary, which meant no one was behind us and it provided ample space for the kids to play (and with other campers too).
Day 2: One of the perks of Lassen Volcanic National Park is that it's not as busy as many of the other national parks, as it's a bit lesser known. We didn't really have to handle large crowds anywhere while we were out exploring. But I would also note that there was no cell reception within the park.
I'd had high hopes to get our crew out on a hike on Day 2, but for a variety of reasons that didn't happen. (Chaos Crags seemed like the best option and the trailhead was located nearby.) In the morning we explored the Loomis Museum, which had some neat opportunities to learn about the volcanic blast that occurred and the animals that live here, while also getting Junior Ranger packets for the kids. We decided to pack the 5 of us into one vehicle and drive most of the road through the park. We made a couple of stops along the way, but unfortunately the Bumpass Hell trail was still closed due to snow, so we didn't get to see one of the major draws to the park. We did explore both the Devastated Area and the Kings Creek Meadow Area. The kids had a blast playing on the remaining snow at the Kings Creek Meadow Area and I also caught a few frogs for the kids to check out. In hindsight, we should have driven on to the Sulphur Works Area as well....
Day 3: On our final morning, after mostly breaking camp, I took M2 on the almost 2 mile hike around Manzanita hike. There were some gorgeous views of the mountain, a really neat trail section of ash, and loads of wildlife (various ducks with ducklings, a deer and two fawn, and ground squirrels). M1 and his cousin stayed back to continue to play with the campground kids.
Once we got back to the campsite, we finished loading up and then headed out on the 1.5 hour drive to the Mt Shasta area, where we were staying for the night. While there were several stops I'd thought about making along the way (Burney Falls, Subway Caves, other hiking), it was hot, M2 ended up napping, and so we ended up driving straight through.
We did a quick drive thru Mt Shasta and spent an hour at the Mt Shasta City Park, before deciding to head to our reservation for the night. If you're traveling in the area, I'd highly recommend a night or two at Cave Springs Resort in Dunsmuir (especially post camping). We'd rented one of their 2 bedroom renovated cabins (they also have 100 year old vintage cabins, hotel rooms, AND airstreams available to rent). While the town of Dunsmuir wasn't a place I'd really go to vacation, Cave Springs and the take out pizza were both great! We all thoroughly enjoyed having a hot shower, eating pizza on the deck, attempting to swim in the (cold) pool, board games and AC in the cabin, and the communal lawn games, swing set, and zip line for the kids.
Day 4: On our way out of town, I really wanted to check out Hedge Creek Falls since it was RIGHT there next to the onramp to the interstate, but given the lack of AC in my car and the projected super hot day, the kids and I headed out of town early to try to beat the heat en route to home. We made our halfway stop at Millsite Park in Myrtle Creek, OR and I was again pleasantly surprised: a covered playground, loads of green fields to run in, an old covered bridge to explore, pretty decent bathrooms, and a path for M1 to bike around. While I wouldn't usually have planned on stopping here, it turned out to be a really great "pit stop" on our return trip... and got enough of our wiggles out to get us back home in one piece. :)
The other big irony of this trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park is that it dawned on me that I've yet to even check out Mount St. Helens... so it's now added to the list for next year. :)
