Hike to Bumpass Hell - Part 2

Here's the star of the show - the noisy, sulfur-smelly Bumpass Hell itself!  Sara has shown this place before, but I've learned, you can never get enough of it.  So I offer my views.

Here it is from the first viewing place.  I'm still about a quarter-or-half-mile away from the sulfur works. but the smell has come to greet me, and the sound of the steam ventings is very noticeable.

first I have to go down this hill (and later, come back up it)

then I've got this hill, which at least is edged in plump mountain lupin

Okay!  Here I am, and it's warmer down here with the heat off the mudpots

I loved this particular noisy little "dry" mudpot, which they described as not a fumerole (stem vent) and not quite a boiling spring, which has more water in it.  But the mudpot was sputtering way down in, and I could just see one bubbling place in one of the tubes, so it's not a fumerole

the boardwalks are wonderful, but I also learned that some old sections have been eaten or made unsafe by newly emerging bubblings or heat.

the Info-board called this the Pot of Fool's Gold because there is black sand - iron pyrite - which is a sign that gold may be nearby - floating on the surface

art shot of the boiling waters

close-up of the black sand bubbles

I tried to capture the spurtings that were constant in this particular boil.  It actually threw material up, which is what you're seeing.  In the front sunlit puddles you can see slower forming bubbles.

This boiling spring hissed and crackled like bacon frying.

All of these "holes" will get larger over time, and the signs told me that the Big Boil has enlargened greatly over the years.  It's what ate a whole section of boardwalk several years back.

It interested me to see this boiling spring so dry.  I seem to recall it as being very pretty and colorful and much pond-ier.

art shot with reflection

I proceeded to hike up and above the Bumpass Hell zone, and on my way, I saw this tree with super cool bark.  If I had taken photos of all the cool shaped trees I saw, I could fill a book.

There it is from the other side, looking at where I came in, through the trees in the center of the shot.

I am having SO MUCH TROUBLE with my computer, that I'm going to stop here, and publish.  I have more shots to show, and I went back to Lassen again Tuesday so, I'll be back, but this is just ridiculous!  I have so much to say and tell and show!  Enjoy!