J to K to L: Pit River to Lassen Volcanic National Park to Redding, CA

After coffee and breakfast, and a brief stroll over to check out the swimming spot on Pit River near the campground, we started towards Lassen National Park. We didn't make the detour up to Burney Falls State Park, and instead stopped at a roadside cafe for breakfast. We were served the largest portions we had received so far at breakfast and it was so delicious we almost finished it all. Emily had the pancake roll (bacon and eggs wrapped in a pancake) and Max had the homemade corned beef hash. We bought a loaf of their homemade rye bread for sandwiches later. We entered the park, were we were asked to show our IDs for the first time along with our Annual Pass and then entered the park. The visitor center parking lot was teeming with cars, and the building was full of people. We were shocked at how many people were there on a weekday. We asked the ranger where we could hope to go for a hike and not run into a lot of people and she pointed out some great walks, that unfortunately required us to probably spend another day at the park. As Lassen NP is the closest National Park to where we are currently staying, we decided to put it off for another, longer trip. We did drive the road through the park, were able to find a less populated trailhead to stop, go hiking, have lunch and play frisbee in the snow. Emily also insisted on stopping at a sulfur pool - where we watched the bubbling, scalding mud for a while.

We left the park in the late afternoon and drove to Redding to stay in a motel for the first time since Seattle. We often stop in Redding, and know the area pretty well, so we hit up Costco for a new SD card for Emily's camera and some blueberries before heading to the Motel 6. We walked down the street to a sushi restaurant for dinner (Redding is not known for its sushi, but we were still feeling full from breakfast and wanted something light) and were struck by how hot it was. Muggy and hot. We had been spoiled by the high elevations of the Cascades and High Desert on this trip and the cooler weather and it was really uncomfortable to walk around. Even after the sun went down, it was still oppressively hot. We cranked the AC in the room and had a mellow evening of doing laundry, watching TV and editing photographs from the previous two weeks.

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