snow, fumaroles, and boiling mud pots

california hwy 89 runs through lassen volcanic park but the road had only been opened for two days and several sites were still snowed in --- bumpass hell is the best of the park's geothermal features and it's closed all of this year so they can rebuild the boardwalk --- chaos jumbles, created by landslides off yonder mountain in the 17th century, were purty cool

as were the 300-ton "hot rocks" that avalanches off lassen peak carried for miles and which sizzled for days after the 1915 eruption

lake helen with lassen peak in the background -- the lake is at 8,200' elevation and the snowiest place in california --- usually free of ice and snow only for two or three months a year ---

even though bumpass hell wasn't accessible, the stinking-ass sulphur works site was the bomb --- fumaroles and boiling mud pots in a desolate landscape! i saw desolate volcanic landscapes in new mexico, but none of them were still active ----

fifty miles away, volcanic debris still litters the landscape