Lassen Volcanic National Park
Out here on the east coast I don't often here people talking about Lassen Volcanic National Par k. Instead, people always talk about Yellowstone or Yosemite, not to mention our own east coast national parks, Acadia and Shenandoah (close enough!). Boy, were we in for a treat with Lassen! Even in July some of the trails were still snowy and, simply put, we just didn't have the gear to hike in the snow. With limited trails to access on our limited time (we had only one day in the park), we decided to do the Cinder Cone hike in the Butte Lake area. The NPS marks this hike as "Strenuous," but to be honest the only strenuous part about the hike, relatively speaking, was going up the cinder cone. As you can see from this distance, it's pretty steep. Then add in loose cinder and scoria "pebbles," which makes you feel like you're taking two steps back for every step forward. Be prepared to slow down once you get to this part. The tota