Cliff Lake (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California)

A weekend camping trip to Lassen with a few day hikes, good campfire-cooked food, and cold craft beer - what's not to like? After picking up my buddy, Bill, at about 10 AM on Saturday morning, we headed up towards Susanville. For a while now, I've been wanting to try some of Lassen Ale Works concoctions and so, we stopped in for lunch and a flight of their finest. The beers were pretty good, but only the Volcanic Double IPA really stood out as exceptional. We arrived at the park by about 1:30 and headed for our campsite at Summit Lake South. After putting up our tents and putting our food into the bear locker, we headed out for the first hike of the weekend. 

I've been to Lassen several times over the years, but I wanted to hit some of the less popular trails on this trip and as it was Bills' first trip to the park, he was open to anything. For the first trail, we decided to head to Cliff Lake. The trail head is actually on the side of the road a bit north of our campground, but wanting to get a few extra miles in, we simply hiked around Summit Lake from our campsite to get there. 

The trail was pretty mild, with only a slight incline. It runs alongside a small stream carving its way through the forest. As we follow the flow upstream, the forest opens up into lush green meadow, with the stream cutting through the center of it and with a snow-covered peak as a back drop. It's a post-card!

A bit further on, we hit a fork in the road and follow the trail to Cliff Lake, which is just a short distance off of the main trail. Arriving at the lake, we are presented with a pristine alpine lake - crystal clear water, surrounded by pine trees, and with a snow-covered rocky cliff in the back drop. Obviously, the granite cliff overlooking the small lake is the source of the name. 

We hike around the shoreline a ways to find a stream at the base of the cliff feeding the calm waters of this beauty. Afterwards, we turn back and head for camp. We hiked just short of seven miles round trip, including the trip around Summit Lake. We arrived back at camp at the perfect time. Fire going, food cooking, beer pouring - ah, a great evening!