Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

I’m on the road and the McDonald’s manager is giving me the evil eye, so I’ll make this fast. (Apparently he thinks my one dollar coffee purchase doesn’t mean I can sit here using their free Wi-Fi forever.)

One of the many delightful national parks experiences I’ve had on this Scamp has been at Lassen Volcanic National Park. It’s in central California, and I took a fun hike down to what’s called Bumpass’s Hell – because the man (Mr. Bumpass) found out the hard way just how hot these boiling mud pots and fumaroles can get. He lost his leg because of it, poor guy.

The grey stuff is boiling mud. The whole place was like a mini-Yellowstone.

Lots of steamy, smelly water. The yellow is sulfur, hence the smell.

Apparently some of this water had a crust over it when Bumpass stepped into it, thinking it was solid ground. His foot broke through and he scalded his leg in something like 240 degree water.

Though I loved the colors, it was also beautiful in black and white.

Bubbling and steam everywhere.

And it was so smoky from all the fires – it seems the entire West is burning – the upside is it made for some beautiful sunsets, like this one:

Gorgeous, if you can forget why.

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