Lassen Volcanic National Park, 2019

Meadows Edge Cottage, Highlands Ranch Resort

Last week, we drove up north to Lassen Volcanic National Park for a short visit. For those unfamiliar with this park, it's in Northern California, about an hour east of Red Bluff and Redding.

Our first stop was at the Highlands Ranch Resort, facing Childs Meadow. The resort is between the small towns of Mineral and Chester, on Highway 36. The resort is about ten minutes from Lassen Volcanic National Park.

View of Childs Meadow

Highlands Ranch Resort is a relatively new guest facility, opening in 2015. Highlands has a large restaurant and five cottages on the south side of 36. The cottages contain seven suites.

On the north side of 36, the resort has renovated an older motel and renamed it Village Inn at Childs Meadow. There is also an RV park next to the Village Inn.

We stayed a couple of nights in one of the Highlands Resort cottages, Meadows Edge.  This cabin was nicely furnished, with a king-sized bed, fireplace, full bathroom, refrigerator, coffee brewer and a personal hot tub. The cabin also had a loft, reached via a ladder, with a twin bed for an additional guest. There was also a TV with a healthy cable menu.

The restaurant provided delicious meals, with large dinner servings. One night, we shared two appetizers and a 14oz rib-eye steak and found ourselves with no room to even consider dessert.

Highlands Ranch Resort Restaurant

From our lodging location, we spent one day driving through Lassen park via Highway 89. This two-lane road runs through the western edge of Lassen Volcanic National Park. This year, the late snow resulted in the highway being closed for vehicle traffic until June 23.  A few days before the road opening, bicyclists and hikers were permitted exclusive use of the highway. Snow was still covering many upper elevation hiking trails, so we took advantage of this rare hiking opportunity on the highway.

Parking our car at the Lassen Peak parking lot and we walked about 1.5 miles on the car-free highway. This was a great chance to view snow and park features that are typically seen only from a moving car window.


As you can see from the photo on the right, the snow depth near Lassen Peak was about 16 feet in June. I'm not sure how much higher the snow depth was about a month ago, but this is about the largest amount of snow I recall seeing in many years.

Walking along the road also permitted us to view interesting patterns in the melting snow fields.

View from Highway Walk

Yet Another View from Highway Walk

Leaving Highlands Ranch Resort, we continued on to Drakesbad Guest Ranch for a three night stay. This 110 year old guest ranch is the only lodging located within the Lassen Volcanic National Park boundaries. The ranch is located in the picturesque Warner Valley, about 30 minutes from the small town of Chester. This location is terrific for horseback riding, hiking and relaxing in the hot springs fed swimming pool. One of my favorite activities is soaking in the warm (90F+) pool early in the morning, with a cup of coffee in hand, while watching the sunrise.

We've been returning to Drakesbad almost every year for over 30 years. After 40 years of operation by the same concessionaire, a new vendor is now operating Drakesbad. Operations were somewhat rough at the beginning of the summer season, but I presume that over the next month the new managers will have dealt with staffing and services. It is a challenge when your hospitality guests have returned year after year and have expectations based on previous visits.

During our Drakesbad stay, we were able to hike up Kings Creek and I even found a couple of areas that I could fly fish - though not with much luck. We also took a morning hike to Devils Kitchen and enjoyed viewing the volcanic steam vents. We were surprised that the mud pots in Devils Kitchen weren't very active, especially given the higher water levels in the park.