Lakes and Volcanoes

Two years ago we visited Crater Lake National Park in the Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, and the views were breathtaking. The lake was formed by the now-collapsed volcano, Mount Mazama. This is what we saw then:

At the time we couldn't drive all the way around the lake as part of the road was still closed thanks to the winter snow. We made it around his time although the smoke from all the wildfires hindered our views somewhat: 

From Oregon, we traveled south into California and the insane heat that was around at the end of August. With over a week of 100F+ / 40C+ temperatures, we were so glad to have the aircon in Badger. We visited Lassen Volcanic National Park and the drive through was amazing.

We hiked through an alien landscape littered with rocks from the last eruption to Bumpass Hell and the bubbling hydrothermal pools and mud pots

At 7,000 feet there was a cool breeze off the mountains and it was a mild 68F/20C so a lovely day for hiking. As we descended into the valley we could feel the temperature rising to 106F/41C, so a dip in the pool finished our day off nicely. 

We've been in Sacramento for just over a week and now its time to move on again and head further south