Lassen Dark Sky Festival

The minute I heard there was a Dark Sky Festival at Lassen Volcanic National Park, I couldn’t wait to revisit this lesser-known gem of the national parks system. The Dark Sky Festival is a celebration of Lassen’s relative isolation from light pollution. In addition to enjoying the park’s hikes and natural beauty, there are stargazing sessions, talks from researchers and activities all weekend long.

We timed our drive up I-5 to avoid traffic, with our only stops in Willows for lunch and in Redding for groceries and gas. The searing temperature of 107°F (42°C) made me wonder if visiting in August was such a good idea after all! After an hour slowly gaining elevation on winding forest roads, we pulled up to the rental in Old Station: a bigger-on-the-inside cottage with a covered picnic patio and an amazing VHS tape collection (though we wouldn’t have time to watch Total Recall, The Bodyguard or any episodes of The X-Files). We settled in, cracked some beers and sat at the picnic table, enjoying the breeze and birds chirping. The owner came by to say hello and make sure we had everything we needed.

Old Station has serviced travelers, soldiers, gold prospectors and now modern road trippers since the mid-1800’s.

Dinner at JJ’s Cafe was a given due to the lack of options in Old Station. Luckily, it’s a small, homey diner with excellent comfort food. I had a fantastic pastrami sandwich and lamented the fact that they were out of homemade pies. Appetites sated, we drove up to the Hat Creek Rim scenic viewpoint, where we enjoyed sweeping views including Lassen Peak to the south, Sugarloaf Peak directly to the west, and silhouette of Mount Shasta to the north hazy heat of the day.

We returned to the viewpoint after dark. There was only one other car there, which is often creepier than no cars at all. We moved to a large pullout on the road where I could take some night photos. The half-moon was high and bright, lighting up the entire landscape. It took me a few moments to find the Milky Way at all, and I was concerned the images would look washed out; but on the other hand the moonlight allowed me to use a lower ISO setting than usual. I took a few stacks while Katelyn watched for meteors. A few days later, back at home, I realized I’d captured one of my favorite shots of the trip!

The next day, we woke up at 6am. I was determined to get to the park ahead of the crowds and take advantage of some nice golden light. We reached the park’s northwest entrance after a quick 20 minute drive. It felt great – rejuvenating, even – to be back at Lassen. There’s something about driving along the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway with the piney smell of the trees flooding in the open windows.

We started on our hike to Paradise Meadows, enjoying the fresh air, tall trees and cool temperature. Lassen Peak watched over us from our right. The trickle of Hat Creek eventually bloomed into the sound of rushing water and I was surprised to see beautiful cascades come into view.

When we reached the meadow itself, I struggled to find compositions. I repeatedly sunk my boot into clear streams and dark mud as we explored the large, flat area. With a totally clear sky and already-punishing bright sun, I decided to just wander around before having a snack and heading back down the trail.

Back at the car, the parking lot was full up. We moved on to the Terrace Lake trailhead at about 8000ft elevation. The trail dropped about 500ft into a glacial cirque, then leveled to reveal clear, colorful Terrace Lake, surrounded by boulders and trees. Shadow Lake, further down another incline, was much larger but no less impressive. The water had a vibrant color gradient near shore that darkened sharply, suggesting it was quite deep in the middle. We waded gingerly in the frigid water trying not to cut our feet on the rocky bottom.

To Shadow Lake and back was only about a mile, though the climb on the way back made it feel much longer. Soon we were back at the cottage, preparing for the cookout and waiting for our friends to show up. We caught up over beers and burgers I cooked up on the grill.

That evening I took our friends to the Devastated Area interpretive trail as an introduction to the park. We meandered along the path, learning about different types of volcanic rock. During Lassen’s 1915 eruption, an avalanche swept over this area, wiping out everything and carrying enormous boulders for miles. It was a lovely short walk and I managed to catch some golden rays falling on Lassen Peak – a quiet portrait of beautiful mountain and a potentially destructive force.

Benjamin Loomis documented Lassen Peak’s 1915 eruption using an 8×10-inch camera with glass-plate negatives and a tent doubling as a darkroom.

At Manzanita Lake, we had some trouble finding the amphitheater for that night’s talk. Katelyn studied the map and cracked the code (an out-of-the way icon that looked like an upside-down wi-fi indicator… can you tell we needed to unplug?). However, the confusion led to a fortuitous encounter with a doe and her deerlets (fawns, I’m told). We made it to the amphitheater just in time for the presentation to start.

We learned from Bonnie Meinke of the Space Telescope Science Institute that the James Webb Space Telescope is a highly sensitive, yet-to-be-launched infrared space observatory. It will be used to identify exoplanets within dense dust clouds and to help understand the distant past of the universe. The telescope is made up of hexagonal mirrors that will allow the assembly to fold inside a rocket for delivery into orbit. Don’t turn it toward the sun, though – the gold coating on its mirrors will melt!

Afterward, we joined the astronomical observing session near campground Loop D. There were only 3 telescopes, long lines, and chilly conditions none of us had prepared for; but we still got to observe Saturn and its moons.

After another early morning, we reached Butte Lake by 7:45a. On our first visit to Lassen, I’d bought a souvenir poster that featured Lassen Peak with the Painted Dunes in the foreground. Painted Dunes?! They looked amazing – how had we missed them? I became determined to see them. We were ready to conquer Cinder Cone and see these dunes, along with their bordering lava beds.

The trail to Cinder Cone is a fairly straightforward, if sandy, path through an open, airy forest. The Fantastic Lava Beds accompanied us most of the way on our left.

On approach, we could see that climbing Cinder Cone itself would be a challenge. The way up looked fairly steep, made of loose material, and was totally exposed. We stopped to hydrate and eat something before attempting it. A couple of other groups started up and soon seemed tiny, like ants climbing an enormous gray anthill. It was indeed a strenuous hike. We took it slow, making sure to stop and catch our breath. Halfway up, it felt like we were making very little progress, yet I could see Lassen Peak coming into view.

The rocky, angular mass of the Fantastic Lava Beds was formed after an eruption at Cinder Cone in the 1650’s.

At the top we were greeted by a breeze and incredible views: to the west, Lassen; to the north, Snag Lake, the Painted Dunes, and the Fantastic Lava Beds; and to the east, the lava flow terminating at Butte Lake. We took a moment to rest in the shade of one of the few trees. Walking along the crater rim felt a little like walking on Mars – all barren red rocks in an otherworldly environment. Going down was much easier than coming up! It felt nice to back in the shade of the trees.

Back in Old Station, we made a lunch stop at JJ’s, where closer inspection of the menu revealed that the former owners were the same people who owned our rental cottage. I couldn’t resist another pastrami sandwich, they were that good.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, mmarveling at patches of snow and ice that had refused to melt at Lake Helen, and, at Sulphur Works, listening to a NASA scientist talk about the Mars rovers and how they select landing sites (it’s related to elevation, and Mars’s thin atmosphere). Another scientist demonstrated how rock is dissolved by acidic substances (using the nearby boiling sulfurous mudpots as a prime example). NASA is particularly interested in the Sulphur Works and Bumpass Hell geothermal areas because other worlds likely consist of very similar conditions (think of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io), and we know that extremophiles can live in these conditions.

Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center was packed. I found out that they have an outgoing mail service, so I scribbled quick notes on a couple of postcards and sent them out.

Our friends cooked a delicious lasagna dinner back at the cottage and we discussed our plans for the evening. Originally I had hoped to hike Kings Creek Falls, but this proved to be a bit ambitious. We didn’t want to miss the 8:30p presentation. Instead, we walked along the shore of Manzanita Lake as the sun dipped below the horizon. On the return, we saw more deer up close as they bounded away down the trail.

The presentation was “Come for the Stars, Stay for the Sun” by Tyler Nordgren. He spoke about the current state of light pollution in the U.S. and the role of our national parks in preserving not only nature, but in preserving dark skies. He pointed out that, with many communities switching to energy-efficient lamps, now is the best time to act to protect the sky. It could be as simple as having a shade installed on the upper part of the lamp so that productive light is directed downward instead of being wasted. I was impressed by his night photos and I would like to say I’ll keep an eye out for opportunities to be active about protecting dark skies.

This time, many more telescopes were set up in the viewing area and we made a point to look through almost each one. We saw incredibly sharp details on the Moon’s surface, a globular cluster, and even two galaxies colliding (the Whirlpool Galaxy and NGC 5195). The image in the eyepiece was small, and the galaxies looked fuzzy, but the galactic centers were surprisingly bright, relatively speaking. Then we found a spot and stargazed for a while, hoping to catch some perseids. We did see a few, but the bright moonlit sky and the shower being past its peak probably reduced what we could see. I made sure to take some exposures in the meantime and was very surprised to see I’d captured the Andromeda Galaxy in one shot!

I was inspired by Dr. Nordgren’s talk and considered waking up around 3am to view the perseids. My body had other ideas. I slept like a rock. In the morning, I made pancakes, then we got packed and cleaned up the cottage.

We ended our trip by visiting nearby Subway Caves. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was an interesting counterpoint to the large geographical features of Lassen. The one-third mile lava tube was surprisingly cold and at one point we turned off our headlights to experience total darkness.

With that, our trip was complete. The decision to stay in Old Station really worked out for us. It was conveniently located between the northwest entrance and the Butte Lake entrance, with some points of interest of its own, too. Of course, you don’t have to attend the Dark Sky Festival to take advantage of Lassen’s clear nights. The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway is actually open 24 hours. So if you have a chance to visit, consider staying in the park after dark!