I have to admit, we did not do either Lassen NP or Crater Lake NP due dilegence, but it was still worth the visit and what we saw was amazing as usual!
April 9 – 11: Lassen Volcanic National Park – We spent the a few nights in Shingletown, CA and connected with another college buddy, Rudy Van Pelt. They have a family cabin just outside of Lassen’s northern entrance, where Rudy and his brother in-law entertained us with an amazing dinner and lots of info of the area. Rudy also showed us around what we could see from the north entrance, but the road across the park to the southern side was still closed due to snow. We wandered around Manzanita Lake and took in outstanding views of Lassen Peak. Lassen’s claim to fame is the fact that there are 4 different types of volcanoes in a very close area: Mount Harkness, a shield volcano, Cinder Cone, a cinder cone, Lassen Peak, a plug dome and Brokeoff Mountain, a composite volcano.
Manzanita Lake and Mount Lassen 
Mount Lassen 
Rudy Van Pelt, Jeanne & Tom
April 11: Crater Lake National Park – The theme of our national park visits off I5 was that much of the parks were still closed due to winter/spring snows. We knew this going in and were happy to enjoy their beauty despite not seeing the whole park. We were particularly overwhelmed with Crater Lake NP’s crystal clear beauty even though we were only there about a half hour!
Thankfully, Tom managed to survive :)! 
The Traveling Lounsburys 
We visited Lassen a couple years ago just after the road was opened. We had never heard of it before our visit. We drove down to Truckee to visit our younger son’s best friend from Shaker Hts. after leaving Lassen. We stopped at Crater Lake on our way to Lassen on a quick stop as Bob had ridden his bike around it a couple years earlier…I sagged him. The snow is such a great enhancer of the whole experience.
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