RESTLESS LASSEN
You’d think it would be enough that we have to worry about earthquakes, wildfires and $3,000-a-month studios in the Mission. We have to worry about volcanoes, too? Yes. Lassen is the southernmost volcano in the Cascade chain, which includes Mounts Shasta, Rainier and St. Helens. And it’s still classified as active. The park is home to amazements that extend from California out through the solar system.
No national park had a more spectacular birth than this one. Starting in 1914, the 10,000plus-foot plug dome volcano began steaming and sputtering with increasing violence. And then, on May 22, 1915, it erupted big time, sending a column of ash 35,000 feet into the air and loosing avalanches of hot rocks and gas that incinerated the forests on the mountain’s slope. Much of the spectacle was captured by local homesteader turned photographer B.F. Loomis; even today his images — on display in both park visitor centers — are thrilling and terrifying.