Photo by Brigitte Robertson
For this adventure to Lassen Volcanic National Park, SEA led a joint group of 13 hikers from SEA, CNPS, and Dog (re)Tired on a day it was 115 in Redding. When we got to the parking lot at Summit Lake it was a warm 84 degrees.
This is a fairly easy hike of about 3 ½ miles with several steep spots climbing up a ridge for a little over 300 feet, then descending back down another 300 feet to Echo Lake (It does have an echo if you shout!). The area had a medium burn primarily on the hike up the trail, but that opened the forest and activated dormant seeds, so there were wildflowers along the trail. The area around the lake was not burned and the trail down the lake was a beneficial low-intensity burn that burned the smaller and weaker trees.
When we reached the lake, we had lunch while a few people went swimming or wading to cool off. As we sat by the lake a few high clouds moved in and a breeze picked up, significantly cooling the air. By the time we hiked back to the parking lot at Summit Lake at around 2 p.m., it was a pleasant 75 degrees.
The trees on the trail were mountain hemlock, red fire, western white and lodgepole pine, and a few white fir. Shrubs included bush chinquapin, tobacco brush, pine mat manzanita, green leaf manzanita, Brewer’s mountain heather, and mahala mat. Herbaceous plants included narrow-flowered lupine, satin lupine, slender Penstemon, and marum-leaved buckwheat with many more next to Summit Lake. This is a great easy hike but it does require balance due to the steep sections.