This remote volcanic landscape, 240 miles northeast of San Francisco, is among the least visited of the country’s big national parks. Just 377,000 people came here last year, according to the National Park Service. Three million went to Yellowstone. At 106,000 acres, Lassen is more than twice the size of Acadia National Park in Maine, but sees less than a fifth of Acadia’s 2 million tourists.
Lassen’s elbow room is a relief for anyone who has idled in Yellowstone’s “wildlife traffic,’’ or queued up for a parking space at a Grand Canyon scenic overlook.
“I like people to come here and see the park, but it doesn’t bother me if they don’t,’’ says Mark Young, 57, whose family has vacationed in Lassen since the 1930s. “Up here you can take a photo and not have to worry about someone passing through your field of vision.’’
Lassen is a photographer’s park. Anyone with a disposable camera could make beautiful vacation pictures here: Just pull the car over, point across a valley to Lassen Peak, and click.
But experiencing the best of the park takes a little more effort. Short hikes off the Main Park Road lead to Lassen’s hot thermal sites, where the land breathes steam and groundwater boils. The planet seems alive here, and the landscape’s many cycles of explosions and erosion remind us that human history is just a blink in time.
In addition to kayaking, fishing, and nature watching, Lassen is also an ideal place for moderately fit people looking to step up to big mountain hiking. Yes, you too can experience altitude sickness just like a world-class mountaineer. Mountain sickness sometimes hits me above 8,000 feet, beginning with shortness of breath and progressing to what feels like a raging hangover. Minimize it by acclimating gradually, doing short hikes to higher altitudes over a few days.
