Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park

Lassen Peak Reflection on Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

The picture above is my favorite among the hundreds of pictures I took at Lassen Volcanic National Park. In fact, it is my laptop's wall paper right now. This is the first picture I posted here in my blog which I did not reduce the size all the way to a 550 pixels width for faster uploading. I still reduced it though from an original size of 7 MB to 1.2 MB to give my site more uploading space. But the 1.2 MB is good enough for screen saver if in case anyone is interested to have the above piece in their screen.

If Bumpass Hell was filled with steaming and geothermal action, the 1.8 mile loop walk around the lake was simply quiet and very relaxing. The water was surprisingly not that cold, however, we did not bring any swim wear with us, so, we passed the opportunity to swim in this lake. There were a few people kayaking in the lake, and I took the liberty of taking some shots with them in the picture. 

Kayaking at Manzanita Lake

However, as they get nearer, they created more ripples in the lake that the reflection of Lassen Peak was lost, thus I settled for the above picture with them, with a little bit of reflection still. Also, they actually shifted their direction away from where we were later.

Large Old Growth Jeffrey Pine Forest, Manzanita Lake

Around the lake, the trail winds between tall and big trees.  

Some of the the trees have light green lichens hanging from the trunk or the branches.

Light Green Lichens

Lichens on the Branch, Lassen Peak, and Manzanita Lake

The forest actually have a lot of different kind of lichens hanging on the tree, some grey, some bright green, some orange, which is actually a happy news for the environment here. In places where the air is very dirty, no lichens survive usually.

Another  interesting observation we had is seeing how a mother bird feeds her baby. The mother bird dives for food, and then, give it to the baby bird. So sweet to look at. Would have been nice if I had videocam, or if my lens can zoom enough to capture the moment. The pictures below were cropped just to enlarge the action.

Mom Dives for Food

Mom Gives Baby Food

The mom was a very active mom, always diving and always giving something to her babies. The babies took turns in being fed. The one who was fed tried to follow mom as close as possible. The South East side of the lake has some mother and baby geese as well.

Geese Family

The scenery above reminded me of Ratty's wonderful experience with the geese family.

Hikers Enjoying the View at Manzanita Lake

We had a simple lunch ( picnic style) at Manzanita Lake, and afterwards, we took a last glimpse of its calm beauty before moving to our next destination.

♥♥