Lassen Volcanic NP

March 2007

I've been to Lassen NP in the past, but only ever during the summer. I had always wondered what it would look like in the grip of winter, and this winter offered the perfect escape. Record high temperatures hit parts of California, and with such beautiful weahter what better excuse to have than to go camping in the snow! Lassen recently began plowing the south parking area to open it up for snowcamping, so why not take advantage? We got there towards the end of the day and the sunset was phenomenal. The pinks and purples were just abounding in the sky and reflecting off all of the snow, giving the landscape this glow that I've not seen before. The next day we were snowshoeing in 60 degree weather. Seeing the snowcapped mountains was amazing. Up by the Sulphur Works the snow was still five feet, but as it approached the walls of fumaroles by the roadsides the heat had melted the snow completely away, revealing a palette of earthtones running all along the creek. It never ceases to amaze me that with just a change of season any place can seem like a different world.

The Photographs

I started off with a roll of Kodachrome PKL 200 and finished up with a roll of Kodachrome PKR 64. From my last experience photographing in the snow, I had played around with different overexposures to try to keep the snow white instead of turning out a dull grey. Unfortunately I was a bit too aggressive, so many of the shots are overexposed and wash out in the highly contrasting trees.

The camera and lenses used were my old Minolta manual system was in use. Click on "Next" in the upper right to begin.