California 360 Photography
Lassen Volcanic National Park is in the north of the state, far north of San Francisco and Sacramento and about as far removed from them as you can imagine. It has been kept, as far as possible, as a wilderness park, with nearly 90 percent designated as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.
The park is famed for what’s beneath the surface; the volcanic activity that bubbles up, reminding us that the earth isn’t dormant. Lassen Peak last erupted only a little over a century ago. The park encompasses steaming, smelly fumaroles (or fumeroles) and bubbling mud pots.
Some locations don’t tick the ‘epic’ box, but nonetheless have something special to offer. This sunrise at Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of those for me. I was in position in the freezing dark, under a clearly visible milky way (not something you ever see as a Londoner) waiting for the sun to burn off the frost. The Peak reflected in the lake, itself revealing what lay beneath. So for me, this 360 is something outside the commonplace – a brief moment in a Californian wilderness.