If you're in Lassen Volcanic National Park and you're looking for an easy, flat trail with incredible views of Chaos Crags and Lassen Peak, then the loop around Reflection Lake is the way to go!
It's easy to see how this pretty lake earned its name. When there's no breeze to disturb the water, reflections of the trees and mountain are crisp and clear...
Last year we hiked to Ridge Lakes in the middle of October, and this year we hiked it during August. (Read all about that autumn hike here.) What a difference a couple months makes!
This time there were wildflowers in full bloom, representing every color under the rainbow, not to mention the yellow mule's ears covering the hillside. And to think that I couldn't imagine the trail being any prettier than when we did it in the fall when there weren't even any flowers!
Between all the different birds we spotted and the beautiful wildflowers blooming, I didn't have time to think about how steep the climb was. The trail to Ridge Lakes is only 2 miles round trip, but has a 1,045 elevation change and is all uphill, as you can imagine.
The water level was too high for the ridge to appear between the lakes so you can stand between the lakes like I did last time, but everything was green and the small patches of snow made for some fantastic photo ops. The reflections on the water are crazy beautiful.
I guess it really is worth re-hiking a trail during a different season!
I can confidently say that the Juniper Lake Campground is the prettiest spot to pitch your tent that I've seen in Lassen so far! For $12 per night, how can you go wrong with a gorgeous view of the lake and Lassen Peak right across from your picnic table?
The sign says it's called Mt. Harkness Campground, but according to the internet there is no such thing. Don't let that stop you, though, here's the link to Lassen's page with more info about this beautiful campground.
Climbed any mountains lately? Well, after this hike, I can proudly say that I have!
At just over 8,048 feet, Mount Harkness is my biggest hiking accomplishment yet. We opted to do the loop that took us by Juniper Lake on the way back. It added a couple miles to the 4 mile hike, but the lake was so pretty with wildflowers growing on the shore that it was worth the extra effort.
Right away when we started the hike (in mid-July), there were huge snowbanks blocking the path and we almost turned back, fearing the trail was still covered in too much snow to traverse. I'm glad we forged ahead because the payoff on this hike was absolutely incredible. There were several times when we had to climb over huge mounds of snow and we actually lost the trail a few times and had to rely on GPS and tree markers to guide our way. At one point, I feared we might get completely lost and have to spend the night in the forest!
Miraculously, we prevailed and made it to the top of Mount Harkness where the views are 360 degrees of pure breathtaking beauty. As a writer, I can find inspiration in just about every location I visit, but the feeling of standing on top of the world and looking down at the trees was something I've never experienced before.
From the fire lookout, you can see Lake Almanor, Lassen Peak, Mt. Shasta, Juniper Lake, Cinder Cone, as far as Nevada to the east, the Coast Range to the west, and the Three Sisters to the north. This is a staffed fire lookout and we enjoyed visiting with the volunteer for a while, talking about birds and solitary life on the remote mountaintop. (We were the first visitors he'd had in 2 days!)
After experiencing panoramic views of this magnitude, I wonder if hiking Lassen Peak could possibly offer a comparable (or better) view. The couch potato in me says no way and the ambitious hiker says let's find out...
*Hike Highlight: Hubby saw a bear as it ran away after we must have startled it coming down the trail. *Hike Downside: I did not see the bear and only felt the ground shake and heard the rumble as it ran away into the forest. (How it didn't hear my Darth Vader hiking breathing from miles away will forever remain a mystery to me.)
Here's the link to Lassen's page for more information about hiking Mount Harkness.
The trip to Butte Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park is such a beautiful drive that I thought I'd share it with you via my dash cam footage! This is a 1 hr. 45 min. drive (the video has been sped up a little) and begins on Deschutes Rd. in Anderson, right off of Interstate 5.
The Butte Lake Campground is remote and has few amenities, but offers beautiful views, hiking access to Cinder Cone, a .4 mile hike to Bathtub Lake, and a non-motorized boat launch for paddling along Butte Lake's lava rock shores.
There are 26 Refuge Units along 77-miles of the River that comprise the Sacramento River Refuge. Today, we're taking a walk around the Codora Unit where there are numerous songbirds to be spotted, a lovely walking trail, and we even encountered a beaver at Packer Lake!
Find out more about the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge at their website here.
I'm calling it the Twin Lakes Loop Trail, but I've seen it named differently depending on which website you go to. Lassen's website calls it the Summit Lake to Cluster/Twin Lakes Loop, All Trails has it as the Cluster Lakes Loop, and the trailhead sign says it's the Summit Lake Loop.
Whatever you want to call it, this hike was a beast and it kicked my patootie, big time. As in, halfway through I started to panic because I didn't know how in the world I was going to find the strength to finish it. (More about my kick-butt perseverance later.) Let's get started!
First, we begin our hike at Summit Lake. This is a beautiful lake--it even has a campground--and I'd like to go back and spend some time here. Preferably sitting at a picnic table with my feet up and a cool drink in my hand.
But we're not here to dilly-dally! Time to buck up and get going!
The beginning of this trail is pretty steep as it climbs up the ridge through a fir forest to a manzanita carpeted woodland...
We've done enough hikes lately to know that the best views are a result of all that difficult climbing work...
The views are a nice payoff and we enjoyed the unique landscape of the meadow of manzanita...
There are several unnamed lakes along the way. I think that if they can manage to stay full through the heat of summer, then they deserve a name!
The trail then continues climbing to a ridge top to the intersection of the beginning and end of the Cluster Lakes Loop trail. You can follow the trail to the right to continue to Echo Lake, but we decided to stick it out and hike the entire loop. (Looking back, I wish future self could tell my past self to just hike the pleasant walk to Echo Lake, have a nice time and go home instead of continuing on the grueling loop. That's what you get for trying to push yourself and #hikefurther!)
The trail passes through the 2012 Reading Fire area. There were miles of dead standing trees and the park's website cautions that they can fall without warning. (We did have to climb over several different trees along the way that had fallen and were blocking the trail.)
At first, the fire's destruction was fascinating, but after a few miles, it started to get a little depressing. We were under the impression that the trail passed through a small section of the fire damaged forest, but in fact, it accounted for more than half of the hike. Not quite the beautiful, shady, scenic hike I'd been expecting.
Little Bear Lake
The main lakes we passed by are as follows:
Summit Lake
Little Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake
Silver Lake
Feather Lake
Lower Twin Lake
Upper Twin Lake
Echo Lake
Silver Lake
The last time you'll see me fresh-faced and smiling during this hike... (Ah, memories!)
Feather Lake
By the time we reached the twin lakes, my calves were beyond burning and my feet pleaded with me to have mercy on them. Unfortunately, we had to keep on trekking. Spending the night in the forest was not an option.
Lower Twin Lake
Upper Twin Lake
10 miles in and somehow I don't feel like climbing anymore...
Are we there yet? Yep, we finally arrived at Echo Lake. (But there's still a couple more miles to go to get back to the car!) Echo Lake was probably the prettiest of the 8 main lakes in the loop and I'd recommend just hiking to it and skipping the loop altogether.
Echo Lake
This is the most exhausted I've ever been in my entire life. I still can't believe we were able to keep on pushing through the pain and fatigue and make it back to the trailhead. Between the two of us, hubby is The Rock (and I'm the hopeless romantic who'd rather live in my fictional sunshine and roses fantasy world than join reality) and he even had a difficult time getting through this hike.
In total, we hiked 12.8 miles with an elevation gain of 1539 feet and it took us 9.5 hours. Whew! No wonder it took me several days afterwords to recover! This trail reminded me who's boss and it sure as heck isn't me. This was our ninth hike in nine weeks and I really thought I could handle the distance. Boy, was I mistaken! And here I thought the hike to Ridge Lakes was easy peasy when it was considered strenuous. Who's in charge of classifying these hikes anyway? From now on, I refuse to hike further than about five miles or so. I proved to myself that I could do longer, but it so wasn't worth it in the end.
Now, it's time to rate this bad boy using our complicated rating system...
My rating for this hike is pretty harsh. After all, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Seriously. Physically, I don't have anything else to compare it to. When I saw the car in the parking lot, I literally started to cry. I'm giving it 2 Never Again's out of 5. 🚷🚷
Hubby's 4 our of 5 is more generous (most likely because he's The Man), but he also said that this hike is making him throw in the towel as far as longer hikes are concerned. 💪💪💪💪
And when the big guy drops the mike on something, you know it must have been rough.
So, there it is. The Vaughn's have officially been put in their place!
On the plus side, this hike wasn't enough to make us never want to go on a hike ever again. We'll still visit Lassen in the spring to make some videos that show off all those snow-capped mountains and blooming wildflowers. And those two and three mile hikes will seem like a piece of cake. Red velvet cake overflowing with ooey-gooey decadent cream cheese frosting...
