Lassen Volcanic National Park: Chaos Crags
April 08, 2016The trailhead is at an interesting location, with a slight turnout on the left hand side when heading to the Manzanita Campground. It looks like a random pull-out section and when I finished my hike, some cars passed by wondering what I was doing at such an odd location. (There is a sign confirming that it is the trailhead.)
The trail is relatively flat in the beginning. After a few minutes, the sounds of a babbling brook breaks the silence, as the water rushes downstream to Manzanita Lake. And I also noticed this guy heading to the brook. It probably saw me first and was wondering what I was doing in its territory.
Lassen can be hot during the day and Chaos Crags provides a nice relief to the heat as it's mostly shaded. Surprisingly, there are a lot of dead trees and chopped trees around, adding to the slight eeriness. Even though I started the hike in the afternoon, the shadows loomed large and added to the spookiness of the trail. There are also a couple of plank crossings, which I'm sure are more useful earlier in the year after the snowmelt. There's also no one on this trail despite the higher crowd levels at nearby Manzanita Lake.
After trekking along the meandering trail that slowly climbs up through the shaded forest, the forest opens up and reveals the destination: Chaos Crags. At this point, the trail is all exposed and begins its ascent.
After a climb, there are a random pile of rocks. They're actually not random because these belong to the Jumbles and also serves as nice viewpoints to look out over the expansive landscape. Using the rocks as a pivot point, to the right are the looming Chaos Crags, six dacite plug domes that were once part of the imploded (and now gone) Mount Tehama.
To the left is Chaos Jumbles, all of the rocks that slid off Chaos Crags in an avalanche about 300 years ago. The cause of the avalanche is unknown, though the rocks did slide down the entire slope, past highway 89 and out towards and up Table Mountain, clearing everything in its path. With this view from the road, Chaos Crags seems quite far away! It's quite obvious after seeing this view to guess at the power of the avalanche. All of the trees that are now growing in the avalanche's path are quite new and young. This view left me in awe and also surprised me that this powerful 100-200 mph avalanche dammed up Manzanita Creek, forming what is now Manzanita Lake and Reflection Lake. This is also a good turning point to head back to the trailhead.
What happens next is all adventure and exploration. There is a steep descent down a flight of steps (that are sometimes slippery) into a basin of sorts, which could be the lake that I was seeking. The trail disappears at points as it curves along the side of the mountain. Don't fret about the sandy part - keep looking up the basin (northeastwards) and there is a trail. This is where the trail becomes even more strange because I'm not sure if there is a trail anymore. I scramble up the side of the hill, clambering over rocks and trees and reach another basin, which I'm going to guess is the seasonal Crags Lake, though it might have been the first basin. It's quite windy here and I decide that this is the end of the trail for me. It makes for great views and some decent cell phone service :)
As I made my way back to the first set of 'random' rocks, I came across this stunning view as the sun was now making its way toward the horizon.
Start: pull-out on left hand side of the Manzanita Lake Campground road, just after the turnoff from the main road (Highway 89)
Duration: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: moderate
Length: 4.0 miles RT
Danger: some high winds and a very rare chance of a rock tumble
Length: 4.0 miles RT
Danger: some high winds and a very rare chance of a rock tumble
Exposure: mostly shaded in the beginning with full exposure upon reaching the jumbles
Crowd factor: very low
Cat
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