Bumpass Hell (Lassen Volcanic National Park)

While accessible only through hiking, it is an easy 3 miles hike (return trip) very doable with young kids. The trailhead is right by the main park road and offers great views of Lassen Peak, Brokeoff Mountain and Mount Diller. It goes down slightly for a few hundred yards until it reaches the road again, by the very blue Helen lake. It then climbs up very gently for a while. You can see that the trail is going up but can barely feel it. The mountain on which the trail is carved is so steep and exposed that you may need to hold the hand of young children.

The last part of the trip is shorter, steeper, sandier, whiter, and goes down, which makes it easy to slip. It offer nice views of the Bumpass Hell area. I was surprised to see lots of flowering lupines in September.

Bumpass Hell itself is pretty interesting. You need to stay on the boardwalk to avoid meeting the same fate as Mr Bumpass (his leg went straight through the crusty ground, in boiling water/mud). We particularly liked the boiling mud and the strange turquoise little pond at the end of the boardwalk.

You go back to the trailhead the same way you came, which means that you have to deal with a short but steep uphill first, before strolling down the rest of the way to the parking lot, on a nicely graded rocky trail.