EAST VALLEY TIMES
September 16, 2010—PAGE 7
YOUR TRAVEL GUIDE
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KOHM YAHMAHNEE VISITOR CENTER:
Lassen Volcanic National Park southern entrance—land of extremes
—By Patricia Lawrence
Summer is ending in the
southern Cascade Mountain
Range in the shadow of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
It’s a time for the gathering of
food and for gathering together. I wanted to find out about
the people who named the
new southern entrance visitor
center; whose ancestors have
lived on these fiery mountains
for over 10,000 years.
Ten years ago, when the
Lassen Volcanic National
Park Visitor Center was in its
planning phase, Allen Lowry,
Marvena Harris, and other
Mountain Maidu from Susanville asked the park service what they were going to
name the new state-of-the-art
building. The superintendent
said they did not have a name.
The Mountain Maidu said in
their quiet way, “Why don’t
you name the center Kohm
Yahmahnee, Snow Mountain.
That is what we have called
Lassen Peak for thousands of
years.”
The Mountain Maidu are a
part of a larger nation of Maidu
that have lived in the southeastern Cascade Mountain Range
since the last ice age receded
10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
When the snow receded up
the volcanic peaks, the Mountain Maidu moved to Kohm
Yahmahnee, in the spring to
gather plants, and in the fall to
hunt deer. Some people went
on spiritual quests to Kohm
Yahmahnee. Allen Lowery
talks about what it was like for
the Mountain Maidu, “They
shared relationships, and ideas
and trading peacefully with
most of their neighbors. In
Warner Valley, where Drakesbad Guest Ranch is now, our
ancestors bathed and drank the
mineral rich hot water. In the
spring the Yahmahnee Maidu
would gather plants, and in the
autumn we would hunt. The
Mountain Maidu traveled up
the southeast side of what is
now Lassen Volcanic National
Park, from where they lived
in Big Meadows, now under
Lake Almanor, to the cool
slopes and meadows of Kohm
Yahmahnee. Mountain Maidu
think in five directions; north,
south east, west, and up.”
The geologic extremes of
Lassen Volcanic National Park
and the Cascade Mountain
Range began millions of years
ago and hundreds of miles
west of here. Three and a half
million years of plate tectonics and volcanism has helped
to created the landscape we
live in and drive through to
visit Lassen Volcanic National
Park’s new southern entrance
Kohm Yahmahnee Visitor
Center.
In October 2008 the new
beautiful
state-of-the-art
building opened. Kohm Yahmahnee Visitor Center received the Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design Award
(LEED). The new visitor center replaced the old ski chalet,
circa 1964, that functioned
as the only southern entrance
welcoming visitors until 1995
when it was condemned.
State Highway 89 takes
you to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Once inside the
park you are on NPS1 built
in 1931 with Civilian Conservation Corp labor. From
the southern park boundary
to Manzanita Lake, NPS1
At Bumpass Hell—Big Boiler the center of Brokeoff Volcano © 2010 Mountain Thyme Photography
was one of the first highways
designed in National Parks to
lie lightly on the land and take
visitors to the park’s most important scenic values. NPS1
is on the National Register of
Historic Places.
“That historic time period
is what we have to preserve
NPS1 to,” Chief of Interpretation and Education Karen
Haner explains, “Many times
people complain about the
road, that it’s so narrow, and it
gets close to the edge; National Park Service is maintaining
the historic fabric. You are not
going to see emergency lanes,
guard rails and bike lanes on
this road. That would detract
from the historic nature of
NPS1.” One needs to drive
NPS1 very carefully, very sober, and leave the looking to
the passengers!
The historic road leads us
into the center of what once
was Mount Tehama aka Brokeoff Volcano, a 20,000 ft. high,
600,000 year old stratovolcano that began eroding away
400,000 years ago, after a
beautiful, productive 200,000
year volcanic lifespan. Why
two names for the same extinct
volcano? Brokeoff Volcano
was the name given to the almost completely eroded away
ancient volcano by the USGS.
The National Park Service
named the phantom volcano,
Mount Tehama.
A mile north of the Kohm
Yahmahnee Visitor Center we
drive further into the middle
of Brokeoff Volcano, as the
two lane road twists through
and over Sulphur Works, the
most accessible hydrothermal
area in the park. Part of what
remains of Brokeoff Volcano
flanks are the three peaks we
can see just south of Lassen
Peak; Pilot Pinnacle, Mount
Dillar, and Brokeoff Mountain.
We are surrounded by Sulphur Works, as we stand on
the sidewalk between boiling
mud pots and the road, with
Karen Haner, who describes
the strange sights and smells,
“The heat of the earth is boiling up, bubbling up, steaming
up, and changing the landscape
here. Sulphur Works is full of
steam vents, and boiling pools
that are on either side of NPS1.
Photo by Dave Bergmann
Photos by Patricia Lawrence
Kohm Yahmahnee Visitor Center
Sixteen stops are indicated by numbered signs along NPS1.
Karen Haner, Chief of Interpretation and Education stands next
to the Sulphur Works sign.
Photo by Dave Bergmann
REACH helicopter based in Redding, ascends above Lake Helen, passes in front of Lassen Peak and Vulcan’s Eye with its
patient; a man who’s health failed while walking on Bumpass
Hell Trail.
When the steam and volcanicgas vents form, they are called
fumaroles. Lassen has everything except true geysers.”
“We have something for
all the senses here. The visual
is very unusual and we sense
the smell of rotten eggs, that’s
the hydrogen sulfide that is
coming up the steam vents.
It does leave an impression.”
As my nose gets used to the
smell, Haner continues, “This
is a boiling mud pool where
the gray soil is being churned
and changed by the hot water
that is full of some of earths
basic chemicals as it comes
up through the cracks and fissures.” Lassen Volcanic National Park has the three things
that are needed to produce
these hydrothermal systems,
abundant water, permeable
rocks, and a heat source at great
depth. To protect visitors, all
park hydrothermal features
are continuously monitored by
the National Park Service, and
U.S. Geological Survey.
Haner suggests a vehicle
tour on NPS1 is the best way
Sierra Club to host working
trip to Eiler Lake
The Sierra Club will host a working trip to Eiler Lake
in the Thousand Lakes Wilderness Area north of Lassen
Peak on Sept. 24-26, 2010. Hikers will rendezvous Friday afternoon at Tamarack Trailhead. In the morning, they
will hike uphill for three miles to Eiler Lake. Once there
a wilderness ranger will guide them in two, fun, easy trail
and lake shore projects.
After performing the service work on Saturday, the
volunteers can fish the well-known wilderness “hot spot,”
go on day hikes or just relax.
Breakfasts and dinners are available through the Central
Commissary for $15. For more information contact group
leader Marti Weidert at 474-4300 or [email protected]
to see and understand Lassen
Volcanic National Park, in the
least amount of time. “You can
purchase ‘Auto Tours, Trips
and Trails’, a well written colorful and informative booklet.
If you are planning a visit in
winter, check for road conditions and NPS1 closures before driving up. NPS1 is open
and maintained to the Kohm
Yahmahnee Visitor Center
year round. Be aware of the
trails and areas that are closed
to dogs. Most importantly,
know your physical limitation
when you are walking at these
high altitudes.”
Sixteen stops are indicated
by numbered signs along
NPS1. Karen Haner, Chief of
Interpretation and Education
stands next to the Sulphur
Works sign.
Geologists have decided
that Bumpass Hell is the center of eroded away Brokeoff
Volcano. The Bumpass Hell
trailhead and parking lot is
six miles north of the Kohm
Yahmahnee Visitor Center on
NPS1. It takes at least a half
a day to walk to Bumpass Hell
and back. No dogs allowed.
The trail is narrow, and rocky.
Proper attire and knowing
one’s own limitations is critical. Much of the trail is flat,
but just before Bumpass Hell,
the trail becomes very steep,
then at the summit you descend into an area filled with
boiling mudpots, fumaroles,
steaming ground and other
surprises. The dirt trail ends,
and visitors are reminded by
big lettered signs and very
hot ground, water, and steam,
to stay on the wooden railed
boardwalk constructed above
what geologists believe is the
precise center of the 600,000
year old Brokeoff Volcano.
It’s the hydrological system
that we see at Bumpass Hell,
and Sulphur Works; the rain
and snow that falls on the Lassen highlands, that is percolated down through the porous
mountains, and back up in the
form of hot water and steam.
Volcanoes are a major link
between the inside of the earth
and the biosphere we live
in on the outside; they help
to create it. The center of
Brokeoff Volcano, Big Boiler,
is the largest fumarole in the
park. The strange smelling,
blue colored water that has
been measured as high as 322
Degrees F, (161C) is also one
of the hottest hydrothermal
fumaroles in the world.
Far below the surface,
deep within the hydrothermal
system, in the dark mineral
laden crevices and fissures
of old volcanoes where it is
more extreme than on the surface, a newly discovered domain of life named Archaea
live. In the 1960’s researchers
discovered live single-celled
microorganisms deep within
the thermal systems of Yellowstone National Park, and
then Lassen Volcanic National Park. Archaea live in up to
175 degrees F (80C) acidic
volcanic soup that is being
heated by the hot rocks, which
in turn are being heated by
the magma below them. The
microscopic organisms live
without sunlight, where they
metabolize sulfur compounds
or methane.
Bumpass Hell was name
for Kendall Bumpass, the first
recorded white man to wander
in. He stood on the edge of
one of the large geothermal
pools and standing too close,
he fell in. His scalded leg was
so badly burned he eventually lost it. He would not be
the last person to fall prey to
Bumpass Hell.
Our walk to Bumpass Hell
ended dramatically when a
hiker from Germany was air
lifted off the trail because
he was experiencing health
problems. He recovered in a
Redding hospital.
On September 24, 2010,
the Kohm Yahmahnee Visitor
Center will be hosting Art and
Wine in the Park. Camp and
hike in summer, snowshoe
and ski in winter. Year round
there is always something for
all ages to do in one of our nation’s most extreme parks.
Patricia Lawrence, producer of
Travel Radio International’s Audio
Journeys, lives in the foothills of
the Cascade Mountain Range.
Photographer Dave Bermann,
Mountain Thyme Photography, has
been photographing Lassen Volcanic National Park for decades.
Copyright 2010 Dave Bermann
Mountain Thyme Photography.
Use by permission only.
Corrections to my Drakesbad Article in August 5 issue
of this paper The bear we saw
while riding horses around
Boiling Springs Lake was an
American Black Bear, not a
California Brown Bear aka
Grizzly bear. Grizzly bears became extinct in California soon
after European settlers arrived,
because the Grizzly’s lived in the
valleys where the people wanted
to live, not in the mountain forests where the American Black
Bear lives.
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