(0.1 mile)
38 DRIVE SLOWLY: TRAIL CROSSING FOR HORSES. The side road on the east
leads to the public horse corral. Reservations for riding and pack
horses may be made during the summer season here or at the Manzanita
Lake Lodge.
The trail on the west goes to Cliff Lake (2.3 miles), Shadow Lake (3.2
miles), Terrace Lake (3.5 miles) and on to the base of Lassen Peak.
(1.2 miles)
39 DERSCH MEADOWS is a two mile long series of meadows extending
northwest from Summit Lake along the park road. It is drained by the
East Fork of Hat Creek and Dersch Creek. A large variety of fine spring
and summer wildflowers including alpine shooting stars, columbia
monkshood and rare white orchids, milkwhite habenaria, can be found
close to the road. Deer are abundant here during the summer and fall
seasons.
[Illustration: COLUMBIA MONKSHOOD (blue, rarely white)]
[Illustration: MILKWHITE HABENARIA (white)]
[Illustration: ALPINE SHOOTING STAR (strong pink)]
This is CANADIAN LIFE ZONE country. In addition to red fir, the 2-needle
lodgepole pine, and western white pine are abundant. The shrub-like
trees in the meadows are the moisture-loving willows. The rust-brown
branches on the red fir have been caused by a small mistletoe which,
like most mistletoes, cripples but rarely kills the trees.
(0.3 mile)
40 A large ANT HILL at the base of a small lodgepole pine about 15 feet
from the road on the uphill side is about a 3-foot high nest built of
twigs and dry pine needles by red ants about ¼ inch long. These ants
have a very well developed social system comparable to that of bees.
PLEASE DO NOT POKE OR OTHERWISE DISTURB THE ANTHILL.
(0.7 mile)
41 On the north (outside) edge of the park road is a truck trail which
follows HAT CREEK north, and then eastward to a locked gate at Badger
Flat, 6 miles distant. From Badger Flat, trails lead to Cinder Cone (5
miles), Butte Lake (7 miles), Cluster Lakes (2 miles), and many other
points.
This is the southeast boundary of the DEVASTATED AREA. The down logs all
point away from Lassen Peak, which dominates the scene and which wrought
the devastation. Some trees have been uprooted; others have been snapped
off like match sticks.
(0.2 mile)
42 HAT LAKE PARKING AREA. Nearby is Hat Lake, elevation 6,450 feet. It
was formed by the mudflow of May 19, 1915, when it blocked Hat Creek.
All lakes are very temporary features, and this one is a good example,
as it is rapidly being filled by the building of a delta at the south
end of the lake and by the accumulation of organic debris such as logs,
etc. This will become a meadow in the near future. Most meadows have
been formed in a similar manner. A cream-colored aquatic buttercup
blooms conspicuously on the lake in the summer and early fall.
This is a good place to observe birds. The dark, grey-brown water ouzel,
or dipper, can usually be seen or heard near the outlet where Hat Creek
is crossed by the Park Road.
[Illustration: DIPPER or WATER OUZEL (grey-brown)]
Just across the road from the parking area, the trail to the south goes
to Paradise Meadow: (1.5 miles). An excellent variety of wildflowers
bloom along the trail in mid-summer. Terrace Lake is 2.9 miles from
here, and the road is again reached at an elevation of nearly 8,000
feet, 0.5 miles beyond this.
(0.4 mile)
43 HAT MOUNTAIN. This volcanic cone has an elevation of 7,695 feet,
rising about 1,000 feet above Summit Lake near its south base.
(0.1 mile)
44 HEART OF THE DEVASTATED AREA. 10,457-foot Lassen Peak rises about
4,000 feet to the southwest. It is the largest plug volcano known. It
was formed rapidly, being forced up as a stiff pasty mass of lava.
On May 30, 1914, without warning, Lassen Peak started a series of
eruptions which lasted through 1917. The hundred eruptions during the
first year were steam explosions which threw out ash, cinders and
boulders, thus clearing out a new crater. On May 19, 1915, a black
dacite lava flow welled up into this crater and spilled over to the
southwest and northeast. At the southwest the lava descended about 1,000
feet on the Sacramento Valley side of the mountain, cooled and hardened.
However, the lava coming down the northeast slope broke off in large
pasty chunks, quickly melting a huge accumulation of snow. The resulting
water, mixed with the large volume of fine and coarse debris from
earlier eruptions formed a great mudflow which roared down the
mountainside. Divided by Raker Peak, part of this mudflow went down Lost
Creek, which the main road now follows northward. The rest went over the
100 foot rise in the east and down that Creek. It cut a swath through
the forest which had been continuous across Lassen’s lower and middle
slopes. Fertile meadows were covered by as much as 20 feet of mudflow
debris. The bark of trees on the edge of the mudflow was pounded and
ripped off as high as 18 feet above the ground.
[Illustration: Landscape]
LASSEN PEAK
1915 LAVA FLOW (NE)
CRESCENT CRATER
SURVIVORS HILL
Area swept by hotblast only
Area swept by mudflow and hotblast
Three days later (May 22, 1915) a great explosive eruption blasted out a
new crater atop Lassen Peak, just west of the one which had been filled
with, and sealed off, by the new lava. A portion of the explosive force
was deflected downward. The resulting Hot Blast took the same, but
wider, path the mudflow had taken. Trees left standing along the mudflow
margins were uprooted or broken off by the blast and thrown down, all
pointing away from Lassen Peak for a distance of 3 miles from the summit
crater. Of the logs and snags which constitute an important part of this
evidence, many have already rotted and weathered away since 1915. Some
still show the abrasion and impact marks of mudflow and hotblast
missiles.
The young trees growing in the Devastated Area have not been planted by
man, but are natural reforestation. In National Parks nature takes its
course. Man’s meddling, even though well intentioned, often upsets the
balance of nature, with resultant undesirable and unforeseen effects.
In summertime christine lupine (cream-colored) is abundant here. In the
fall, rabbitbrush (yellow) is conspicuous.
[Illustration: RABBITBRUSH (yellow)]
[Illustration: CHRISTINE LUPINE (pale yellow)]
In late summer and fall, deer are numerous on the lower slopes of Lassen
Peak. Some of the deer seen here are mule deer and its more common
sub-species called the black-tailed deer, both recognized by their
tails. The sub-species has a tail entirely black, and the mule deer has
only the lower tip black with the remainder the color of its coat.
(0.7 mile)
[Illustration: MULE DEER MIGRATE TO THE EAST]
[Illustration: BLACK TAILED DEER MIGRATE TO THE WEST]
45 RAKER PEAK to the north is a 1,200-foot cone of andesite lava through
which a stiff dome of dacite later welled up, the latter forming the
cliffs. Logs felled by Lassen’s hot blast of May 22, 1915, are also
visible on its lower slope. The mountain was named Raker Peak in 1933 to
perpetuate the memory of John E. Raker, Representative from California
and author of the successful bill making Lassen a National Park in 1916.
Across the road to the west, on the left base of the slope, is a small
patch of mature trees. The mound, called “SURVIVORS HILL,” protected
these trees from both the mudflow and the great Hot Blast. Survivors
Hill also protected a patch of forest on Raker Peak where a patch of old
trees still stands unscathed, surrounded by down timber.
(0.4 mile)
46 OLD BOUNDARY SPRING lies in the grove of white-trunked quaking aspen
trees just southwest and below the level of the Road. The spring
provides excellent drinking water. Through this site once passed the
original park boundary, hence the name.
Quaking aspens are sun-tolerant trees, members of the poplar family. In
autumn, their leaves turn a golden-yellow, sometimes tinged with red. It
is a short-lived tree and is often a pioneer in areas denuded by fire or
other means. It provides shelter and water-retention, assisting in the
establishment of young coniferous trees which eventually crowd out the
aspens.
(0.5 mile)