Big Nasty Trail (Lava Beds National Monument, California)

With several hours of daylight remaining after my tour of Fern Cave, I wanted to knock out a few miles and enjoy some more of the park, before returning home. I had asked Emily, our tour guide for the cave, about reasonable hiking options given the time of day and heat. She suggested a couple, including Big Nasty Trail. How could I not check that one out?

The trail head is diagonally across the park from Fern Cave, but not difficult to find. It starts at the top of Mammoth Crater, a medium-sized volcanic crater in the extreme southern end of the park. After leaving the make-shift parking lot, I make my way up a very short hill to the edge of the crater and then proceed down a paved walkway to an observation deck just below. The view from here is quite impressive, but not unlike other volcanic craters I have visited in the past. 

Making my back up to the edge, I find the sign for the 'Big Nasty Trail', which I will discover is not really 'big', nor really 'nasty'. The first part of the trail follows the southern rim of the crater with views of many of the nearby cinder cone volcanoes and assorted lava fields surrounding the entire area. Eventually, the trail forks and begins the loop, which I had seen on the map. Not knowing if one direction was better than the other, I take the left fork and make my way out into the lava crusted desert. It's hot. It's very hot, but I have water (though, it hasn't been cold in a long while).

The trail twists and turns as it climbs over volcanic glass streams that presumably poured out of the crater long ago and dried in their current resting places. It is pretty desolate out here, but the occasional tree offers some shade. As I push on, I wonder if there is actually a destination for this trail. In fact, there isn't. The trail simply meanders out into the desert and then loops back to the fork I mentioned earlier. 

While there is certainly a lot of beauty to behold along this trail and the views of the crater or very nice, the lack of a destination and the extreme hit combined with the exposure, prevent me from thinking overly wonderful thoughts of this trail. Still, it was an overall pleasant walk of about 2.5 miles, but now I need some shade.