Mt. Dana ~ The second highest mountain in Yosemite National Park

Video for this Hiking!!

   I went hiking to Mt. Dana in Yosemite National Park this weekend.   Originally, I would go there last weekend, however I thought it might be very crowded last weekend due to July 4^th weekend.  So I went Lassen Peak instead.

Mt. Dana

   Mt. Dana is the second highest mountain in Yosemite National Park.   It is 13,061 feet (3,981m) elevation.  In major map I checked, there is no trail to the mountain.   However, if I search some information on the internet, many people hiked there and they indicate there is a trail from Tioga pass entrance.   However, the trail is not very clear especially right below the summit.   Anyway, it seemed that the view from the summit was really beautiful on many photos posted on the internet.

Approach

   Tioga pass was on the way to Lone Pine to hike Mt. Whitney two weeks ago.   So I took the same way to there, taking I-580 ~ I-5, ~ CA-120/108.  It took about 4-hour drive from my home.   I left my home about 4am in the morning and arrive there around 7:30am.  There is no other cars in the parking lot next to Tioga pass entrance.  I know Yosemite NP is really popular place in summer and all parking lot could be full late in the morning.   So, I tried to arrive there early.

Trail

 GPS tracking data for this hiking on a map

   A parking lot right next the entrance, there is a sign which says “authorize vehicle only”, and therefore I parked my car on the north side.  There is a restroom next to the parking lot.  From the parking lot, just crossing CA-120 and pass the entrance station, there is a clear trail toward south.  There are a several lakes near trail and they are really beautiful lakes.  I saw nice cloud and blue sky on the surface of lakes.   Around Tioga pass, there is wetlands with lakes and many wild flowers and the trail is going through the wetlands in the beginning. 

 A lake next to this trail

    After a several minutes walking, the trail is getting steeper and starting switch back to get elevation gain.   From the trial, I saw many beautiful mountains on west to north side with snow.  Above the tree line, the slope is getting steeper and it is not usual for many trails in the United States.   Like Mt. Whitney Trail, it is designed not to have steep section.  This trail is obviously steeper than Mt. Whitney Trail.

Mountains on the west side from the trail

   About 1 hour walking, I got into a plateau and the slop was getting a bit gentle, however, the wind was getting cold.  I wear a jacket and globes.   On the last slope, it was getting steep again and the trail is not very clear.  It seemed there were probably at least 2 trails toward the top.  I was not sure which trail would be a better one.  However, it could go up anywhere.   So I thought it was not a big deal.  I took the left trail, but it was not very clear all the way.   So I just toward the top and just walked up.  It was not too bad.   

Wild flower

   The summit was really windy and cold.  I just took some photos and video.   On the east side, I saw entire Mono Lake.  Then, I saw many mountains from south ~ west ~ north.  Many mountains still had snow and they are so beautiful.   Since it was cold, I started going down without resting on the summit.   Descending is easy and I just took 1 and half hour.

 View from the summit

Mono Lake from the summit

Notes

   I think it is better to start early.   The parking was getting crowded when I came back to the parking lot.  There was no parking space any more.  However, there were a few spaces in another parking lot.   Early in the morning, there were some clouds, but they were going away around noon time.  However, after that, I do see cumulonimbus on the sky when I drove back.   So there might be a chance of lightning.   I guess it would be better to start early and be back early in the afternoon.

   There were a few location where we need to across small snow.  However, they were not a big deal.  It was really easy to across the snow.

   The trail is not very clear right below the summit.  However, we can climb anywhere.  So people just need to toward the top.   Only thing is just to be careful the east side is really steep.   Probably, trail on the right side (west side) would be a little clear in my opinion.

   The altitude sickness, I did not have any symptom at all.   The big problem was that I forgot to wear heart rate monitor this time and I did not have a very good data.   But I did manage my pace very well based on the past 2 weeks for the other hiking.  I can manage my pace without heart rate value.   The pace was slowing down a little, but I believe this was due to steeper slope.   I guess my heart rate was less than 155bpm this hiking 

 Elevation and walking speed

	Time		Distance (km)
Tioga Pass	0:00	--	0	--
Plateau	1:20	1:20	3.0	3.0
Summit	2:20	1:00	4.5	1.5
Tioga Pass	4:05	1.45	9.5	5.0

This is a short trail, but I really recommend this trail.   I guess people may try a season with some snow like this time, something around late June to July.

 Video for this Hiking!

Lassen Volcanic National Park ~ Where can we stay / eat?

Visitor Center at South entrance

Where can we stay when we visit the park?

Lassen Volcanic National park is located northern California.  From San Francisco bay area, it is about a several hours driving.   It is possible to do a day trip.  It might be easy to stay over night over there.   There are a couple options where we stay.

One is camping.   It is not too bad.  I guess most of time, it is not so cold in this season of a year.  However, it is better to have some experience camping on snow.   Some people just using RV car to stay.   A good thing for camping is staying in the park.   People can use their time efficiently.  It could be a bit hard if people have young kids or babies.

The other option could be staying hotel / motel.  The closest town near the south entrance could be Chester or Red Bluff.  We usually stay Chester since the town is closer to the park than Red Bluff.  Only problem is not many restaurants in the town.   We were told that the choice could be Chinese, Mexican, pizza, a stake house.   Last year, we went to a Mexican restaurant and it was not too bad.  Since a receptionist mentioned a Mexican, we thought it was the same one we went last year.  So that we went there, but the restaurant was closed.   It was another restaurant.   That restaurant was also OK.

Here is the one we went this time.   Mi Casita Restaurant
Here is a motel we stayed Best Western Rose Quartz Inn
 
There are some vacation houses.  I have not tried them.  But some people mentioned that they stay in a vacation rental house.

Lunch in the park

If the visitor center is open, there is a small cafe inside.  However, it was closed this time.  Other than the cafe, there is no place to get food in the park in this season.   We usually prepare lunch when we visit the park this season.   With some camping equipment, we can cook "warm food" and it would be better in a cold weather.

It is important that we need well prepared when we visit there this time of the season.  It is not like summer time.  I just want to remind this!

Lassen Volcanic National Park ~ 2014 Spring Much less snow this year

There is still much snow, but much less than regular years

As I mentioned, we went to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  It was nice weather this weekend and we enjoyed on a snow field.

Much Less snow than regular years

Due to much less snow this winter, snow in the park was much less than regular years.   I felt like it was May.   In a regular year, we made a nice size of a snow cave.  However, this year, snow over there could be only 1~2m (3~6 feet) that was not enough to make a snow cave.   So that we tried to make an igloo instead.

Igloo

We put snow blocks too high and we could not close ceiling.  But kids liked it very much.  After that they dug a tunnel to reach inside of it.  

Entrance of the tunnel

Kids also enjoyed snow threading on a sloop. 

There was still much snow, but I felt like it was May

The weather was warm and we did not need a jackets.  We did not feel cold at all.  Actually we were sweating when we dug snow, climbing up for snow threading.

  CA-89, snow removing has not been started

Last year, snow removing was started when we visited there in the last weekend in March.  This year was a week earlier, however, it has not been started yet.   Actually, the visitor center was closed till the end of March.   I think it is due to the budget cutting by the government.

Around the visitor center, there is usually snow walls around the building.  However, this year, there was no snow walls around there.

The Visitor Center

Usually, we could not see the building from this location due to more snow!

Anyway, we enjoyed this weekend with our friends and had a really nice time over there.
Even if there was not much snow this year, it was still nice to play with snow.  Kids like this very much.   If you have a chance, I recommend to visit there in this time of the year.

Plan to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park this weekend!

Outdoor activity on a snow field!

One year anniversary of this blog!

It's been for almost 1 year!  Last year, I posted a report for our Lassen trip as the first article.  It is not really easy to write something in English, but I am trying to post more.

Annual Event!
As an annual event, our family visit Lassen Volcanic National Park in spring break.  Almost all Saturdays except summer vacation time, we sent our kids to a Japanese school.  Therefore, it is not easy to go overnight trip. 

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Volcanic National Park is located northern California.  In summer season, many people visit the park to see different type of Volcano in the park.  People can do hiking, camping and etc.  It is probably busy in high season.  However, there is much snow in winter time and not many people visit this park.   So that even we stay a motel in one of  towns near by, it is very easy to get it.

In winter time, a CA-89 that across the park from north to south is closed.  So that, most of people are probably stay near entrance and playing with snow.   In winter time, it is really cold and it might be heard to stay out side for most of people.   The temperature could be below 20F, without moving around, it might be too cold.  However, in early spring around March, it is getting warm and people can stay out side and enjoy playing with snow.   I guess March could be a good season to visit the park.

Activity could be making (digging) a snow cave and  building igloo are really fun.  Kids love to do them!  You probably need to bring snow-saw and snow shovel.  Also, snow threading is also fun.  If you are interested in back country skiing, Lassen is a great area for back country skiing.   Probably snow-shoeing is also fun.  Since my kids is not old enough to do back country skiing.  We typically do making snow cave / igloo and snow threading.  
Then we do picnic on snow and cook some warm food.  I guess if the kids are getting older, we may be able to try to do coming on snow some day.

Lassen this winter

This winter, we did not get much rain / snow till a month ago.   As you probably know, most of ski resorts only have some snow with snow machines.  The mountain was brown / black even in January and February.   We planed to be there a few times this winter, but due to lack of snow, we gave up.
After mid February, we got a few storm and finally we got some snow over there.
This weekend could be good!  There will be no snow on the road and suppose to be good weather this weekend.
 
Skiing is fun, but a ski resort is typically crowded and noisy.  However, Lassen is very nice and quiet.  Just playing with snow is completely different experience for kids as well.  Also the cost is much less than skiing in a ski resort as well.

I really recommend to try Lassen Volcanic National Park some time in spring.

From San Francisco, it is about 4~5 hours driving.  It is not so far.   I would look for seeing you some day!

Lassen Volcanic National Park -- Played in a snow field!

Less snow this spring (March 2013)

  About Lassen Volcanic National Park
   Lassen Volcanic National Park is located in northern California.  CA-89 that is a load across the part in summer time, but the load is usually closed in winter.   There is a lot of snow in winter through early spring.  Late March is a good time to play in the snow field.  A couple years ago, I read a guide book for back country skiing and found out Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of nice location to enjoy back country skiing.  So that I visited the part to see what it looks.  It was very beautiful view right after snow storm in February.

Visitor Center when I visited the park for the first time (February 2010)

  We arrived at the part early in the morning.  There were very few cars in the parking lot.  It was very clean, nice blue sky.  That was something I was looking for.

February 2010 near the visitor center

  Trees got fresh snow and everything white.  A few people was going to back country skiing.  Some ski tracks were on a nice snow sloop near the visitor center.

 Many ski tracks on a sloop!

  It was different from a typical ski resort.  My kids also liked the snow field and they really enjoyed.  After that our family visited the park a couple times a year except last year.  Last winter, there was not much snow over there during the winter.  There were some snow storms in March.  That was not usual.  We planed to visit there in the end of March.  But due to the last big snow storm last winter, we gave up the trip.

We visited there last weekend!

  We went there last weekend with some friends.  It had been almost two years.  We expected a lot of snow over there.  Unfortunately, the snow was not much as we expected.  The snow removal on CA89 started and making a good progress this spring.   I guess about a months earlier than typical years.  Although there was not much snow, it was first visit in winter / spring time for other families.  Even I said there was not much snow, there was enough snow to make a snow cave, playing with snow thread and so on.

 Snow cave!  Kids were so happy inside of the snow cave.  (2010)

  At the end of a day, kids were getting a very good idea how to use snow saw and snow shovel.  They can cut a nice snow blocks and they made a tiny snow cave by themselves.  It was a really fun out door activities in a spring break. 

Activities in winter / spring:

• Back country skiing / snow boarding
• Snow shoe hiking
• Making snow cave
• Snow threading
• Snow camping

 Other information

• Nice and clean bath rooms in the visitor center building  (Open in winter as well)
• Entrance fee is $10 that is valid for 7 days.  If you have annual path for National Parks, you can use it.

Lassen Volcanic National Park is about 4~5 hours driving from San Francisco Bay Area.    It is worth to visit there and you can enjoy completely different experience from a regular ski resort.