Fantastic Lava Beds

With a gift shop, café and audiovisual presentation, this informative center serves as the perfect base before exploration of the volcanic park.

The remnants of an ancient volcano release sulfuric steam into the air in this eerie world of fumaroles and bubbling mud pots, where a mine and spa once stood.

Hike the scenic trail connecting the larger Lake Helen to this charming basin, which is cold for much of the year and sometimes covered in ice.

Lassen Peak, Bumpass Mountain and Ski Heil Peak are among the rocky behemoths that frame the deep blue water of this scenic lake.

Notice the rotten egg smell as you perch over the dome at the end of a trail that loops around the Cascade Range’s southernmost active volcano.

Colorful wildflowers and grasses decorate this vast, open meadow, where you’ll see mule deer grazing along the meandering Kings Creek.