Fear and Photography in Lassen Volcanic

Exploring the Beauty of a Lesser-Visited National Park

“The bears typically won’t bother you here,” the ranger said as he started to close up the visitors center for the evening. “There’s only one bear we know to be aggressive, but he’s up in a part of the park you can’t access right now because of the snowpack.”

I had just arrived in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California and made sure to stop at the visitor center to speak with a ranger before heading to set up camp. I was 3 weeks into a solo 5-week cross-country road trip and, during the first leg of the trip, I learned that spending a few minutes talking to a park ranger was more valuable than an hour of my own internet research (except in Yellowstone, but that’s a different story).

I only planned to be in Lassen Volcanic for 2 days, so I wanted to maximize my time. This had been the case at my previous stops on the trip, as I spent no more than 1 to 3 days each visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Grand Canyon National Park, Death Valley National Park, and Alabama Hills. I had done my research in advance for all of these places, but those few minutes I spent with a ranger at each park were usually essential for refining my plans.

“So what is the protocol with mountain lions?” I asked, having only seriously considered bear encounters as a possibility up until this moment.

“They like the higher ground, so be aware of your surroundings when you’re on the trails,” he said. “If you see one, rest assured that it already saw you first. Get as big as you can, yell, and throw things to scare it off.”

“Keep bears in mind at the campgrounds too though,” he added. “Most of them know how to open car doors.”

My main reason for stopping at Lassen Volcanic was a chance to see the colorful volcanic dunes in the northern portion of the park, the road to access which had luckily opened the day before I arrived. I initially hadn’t planned to go out of my way for this stop, but the park was a good rest point between seeing friends near Lake Tahoe and visiting Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I learned early on in the road trip that I could handle extended hours of driving, but consecutive long travel days seemed to drain me.