Lassen National Park

If you're ready for a back road exploration of some beautiful countryside, come on an adventure of Lassen National Forest in Northern California.
View Larger Map Coming from Redding, take Old Hwy 44 east straight to the entrance of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Due to our poor planning (we made this trip in early November) the main road through Lassen had already been closed for the winter thanks to some early snow the week before. But have no fear, there is still an adventure to be had. Even though we couldn't take the whole road, we did go as far as Manzita Lake. We had a nice pit stop at a small river to check out the scenery. Ahhh beautiful, but a bit chilly. There was still snow patches on the side of the road. If you want to plan your trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park be sure to check out: http://www.nps.gov/lavo/ to see if the road is open.
To continue on our adventure we continued East on Hwy 44. Had a quick lunch around Old Station, continued following Hwy 44, until we cut south on Mooney Rd. Heading east on Hwy 36,we came to Lake Almanor. The water level seamed low, but it was still beautiful. After exploring the area around the north side of the Lake, we headed into Chester. We found a colorful, yummy diner and a hotel to spend the night. If you want to plan your trip to Chester, check out: http://www.chester-lakealmanor.com/

Some of our favorite adventures take place to and from our destination. We wanted to end up back in Redding, but where's the adventure in taking the main road, or worse going back the way we came, so we took out our trusty map and found some back roads heading generally our direction. [If your up for the ride, and preferably have 4 wheel drive, (especially this time of the year), then follow our back road find.] As you leave Chester heading east on Hwy 44, take Hwy 89 South. A few miles down turn off the main road onto Humbug Rd. (the names weren't on our old map, but the roads were there) and shortly thereafter head right on Humbolt Rd. A quick conversation with a hunter leaving the forest, who assured us that this would eventually meet up with a main road (and recommending that we had a spare tire), we felt good about our choice of back roads. This turned out to be some beautiful driving through Lassen National Forest. This road takes you through a peaceful meadow, by old ranch barns, and up to the top of the snowy summit. Just before we hit the main road we stopped at a rural campground just outside of Butte Meadows, to play along the river. Mom & Dad even braved the slippery logs.

What an adventure. It's amazing all of the different terrain and foliage you can see in one day. If you want to check out more about Lassen National Forest, check out: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/lassen/. Have you had any good back road adventures?