Drakesbad & Lassen Volcanic National Park

A recent article in The New Yorker magazine has everyone suddenly alarmed about the seismic and volcanic potential of the Pacific Northwest. We haven't been in the area long but it's been long enough that our reaction to the article, like that of many locals, was "duh!"  For instance, this week we've been hiking in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park surrounds the Lassen Volcano that last erupted in 1915. They've got the pictures, and devastated areas to prove it.

Bumpass Hell

In addition to a recently erupted volcano there is so much evidence out here of recent Ring of Fire activity that it seems hard not to know this place is on the move. There are lava beds, cinder cones, fumaroles, boiling hot springs, and mud pots everywhere.

A great hike in the Park to emphasize this point is the one we took to Bumpass Hell.  It's a three mile hike off the main park road that climbs a short ridge and then, after a sign warning you to stay on the boardwalk (the pioneer (Bumpass) who originally found the place burned his leg off by stepping in the wrong place) sends you off across a boardwalk over bubbling mud pots, stinky sulfur vents and boiling pools.

Another hot, but not as crowded geothermal hike is to the Devil's Kitchen.  The trail head for this hike is in the Warner Valley section of Lassen. And that's where we come to Drakesbad.

Warner Valley - Home of the Devil's Kitchen
and Drakesbad

In the late nineteenth century a professed relative of Sir Francis, Edward Drake, acquired "400 acres of land which he opened up to campers and weary travelers that came seeking his “hot waters”." " On June 20, 1900 the Siffords took possession of Drake’s Hot Spring Valley which was renamed Drakesbad (Drake’s baths) in 1908 by the Siffords in honor of Drake".


Soon after Lassen Volcanic National Park was established. Over time Drakesbad Guest Ranch was acquired by the Park Service, who runs it today. The Ranch, advertised as open to guests only, has cabins, a thermal heated pool, massage, archery, horseback ride and very nice meals. What initially attracted S.D. and I was that we heard it also had showers and a laundry! We were camped a half mile down the road from Drakesbad at the Warner Valley Campground. A small, nice campground that had water but no other facilities. It had been over week since we'd done laundry, and the drive to town was over 15 miles of rough gravel roads. Personal hygiene was also lacking as cleaning up in camp is a poor second to a hot shower.  The campground host told us about Drakesbad and said that if we were lucky enough to get reservations to eat we would also be able to take a shower, use the pool and the laundry.

A Drake, doing what we like to do best -
Hanging out in awesome places

And so it was that on our third morning at the Warner Valley Campground, the day after a particularly long, hot hike, we wandered up the road to Drakesbad to see if this oasis in the wilderness was really real. And it was! Not only was it real, with real showers and laundry facilities but they also had two available dinner seats!  With barely contained joy we made our reservations and then headed back off into the wilderness to the Devil's Kitchen with dreams of future showers, clean laundry and lamp chops to come. We might be in the middle of wilderness, it might even be a seismologically ticking time bomb of a wilderness, but we were there and we were going to have another great day of hiking followed by clean clothes, clean bodies and an awesome meal. It really doesn't get any better than that.