View from Cinder Cone
The best view in Lassen Volcanic National Park is at the end of a torturous hike to the top of a cinder cone volcano. The spectacular volcanic landscape features colorful painted dunes and black lava fields with distant views of Mount Lassen and several beautiful mountain lakes.
How to get there
From Highway 44 take the dirt road turnoff to Butte Lake Campground at (N40 38.748 W121 16.768) and follow the road for about 6 miles to the campground. The road is passable by passenger cars without problems.
The hike is manageable by most of you, provided you plan enough time and take things slow. The trail starts at the Butte Lake Campground. You can download the trail log, but that is unnecessary since you cannot miss the trail.
Cinder Cone Hike
The entire hike to Cinder Cone and Painted Dunes was about 6.1miles round trip. If you skip either the Cinder Cone or the Painted Dunes the hike will be shorter.
Cinder Cone Hike Elevation Profile
The absolute altitude on top of the cinder cone is 2100m (6900 ft). The elevation gain of the hike was 309m (1010 ft). The ground material is cinder for most of the hike, making it a bit more exhausting (like walking on the beach).
GPS position
N40 32.890 W121 19.279
How to photograph Cinder Cone and Painted Dunes in Lassen Volcanic NP
Pine Cones
The trail starts at Butte Lake. The lake sits in a serene setting, surrounded by forests. It is popular with canoeists and mosquitoes and of moderate photographic interest, especially considering all the other splendid lakes in the park. The lake makes a good subject to warm up your photographic mind until everyone in your party is ready for the hike.
During the first few hundred yards, the trail winds along a lava field. Although choices for compositions are somewhat limited, the deep black lava combined with blue skies and some remaining white snow creates snappy contrasts that may be worth exploring. Soon the trail cover will turn into cinder, flanked by pine trees all around. Pinecones cover the ground everywhere.
Cinder Cone
3 Amigos from Cinder Cone
After a short time, you will see the volcano ahead of you and as you proceed, the cinder cone will emerge from the forest. When you leave the forest, you are in the perfect spot to photograph the cinder cone. Include the trail leading up and some hikers for perspective, as the cone looks like a molehill otherwise.
Take a break in the shade of the trees and mentally prepare for the climb. (Skip ahead to the painted dunes section if you do not plan on hiking up.)
After you made the arduous trail up to the top of cinder cone, the dramatic views are going to surprise you. Consider how long it took you to get up here and take your time photographing. Try different focal length. Use a telephoto lens to isolate single pine trees on the painted dunes, use a normal lens to photograph the painted dunes with Mt. Lassen or Snag Lake in the background and use a wide-angle lens to photograph the crater of the cone with Mt. Lassen.
Depending on the time of the day and the season, you can use the slope of the crater and a lonely pine tree to create fantastic abstract images of shadow and light.
Painted Dunes
Little Amigo and Cinder Cone
Most people turn back after conquering the cinder cone, but I recommend going a little further to the painted dunes section that you just photographed from the cinder cone. During the afternoon, the light on the cone is usually better from this side as well.
Use the wind ripples in the sand together with the small pine trees to create some interesting near-far compositions involving the cinder cone or Mount Lassen. Use a wide-angle lens and get low on the ground. Make sure you get maximum depth of field. I usually set my wide-angle lens to about 2m focus distance and f/9 to get everything sharp between about 1/2m-1m and infinity. I empirically determined the range of sharpness for my wide-angle lens. Hyper-focal distance charts are just approximations. It is always better to find out which range suits your camera and lens combination.
The colors out here and the clean air sky really make your pictures pop. Use a circular polarizing filter, but do not use it at its maximum effect to avoid unrealistic color ranges. Since wide-angle lenses have a very wide field of view and the amount of polarization varies over this distance, polarizing filters can actually make things worse. If I use a CP filter on my wide-angle lens, I never use it at the maximum.
Best Time of the Day and Best Season
Although Highway 89 was still closed on my last visit during Memorial Day (last weekend of May), the cinder cone area was open and clear of snow. The hike was more pleasant during this time of the year when it is not quite as warm.
Any time of the day is good. Mornings give you better light to photograph from the Cinder Cone to the Painted Dunes and afternoons are better to shoot the cone from the Painted Dunes area. Come during midday for best 360-degree views.
Time required
Depending on the hiking length and the time you take for photography, you need to plan between 3-5 hours for the tip.
Equipment
- Travel Lens (whatever you can do to reduce weight) with IS
- Alternatively bring several lenses to cover all focal lengths up to 300mm
- Polarizing Filter
- Water
- Hiking shoes
- Mosquito repellant
- Sun cream
Fees
The entrance fee to Lassen Volcanic NP is $10. Standard national park passes and discounts are accepted.
Difficulty Getting There
The hike to the top of cinder cone is very strenuous due to its steepness and the cinder material. For every two steps you take, you slide back a step, which makes the climb very hard.
Close Locations
- Manzanita Lake and Mirror Lake
- Juniper Lake
- Devils Kitchen and Boiling Springs Lake
- Bumpass Hell
- Kings Creek Falls
- McArthur Burney Falls
- McCloud Falls
- Lake Shasta
- Whiskeytown Falls
- Brandy Creek Falls
- Redding
Useful Resources
Lassen Volcanic National Park Website
Cinder Cone and Painted Dunes picture gallery
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3 Comments
Torturous, arduous, strenuous…I dunno…you certainly earn your great photos. That’s the secret, I guess. These are lovely. The Three Amigos one would make a cool, abstract Christmas card.
You provide such useful and detailed information. Far far better than guide books.
Very hard hike,even from the forest path, as is all like steping on soft sand. A swim later on in Butte lake is great,cold not frigid,with ocassional strange warm spots you swim thru. Very healing.The campground set up is very good. Very clean restrooms. Take everything you need, the nearest place is ways away,ice is very hard to find and expensive. Chimpmunk heaven,no bears.