One of my many bucket list items is to visit all of the US National Parks. I have visited most of the major ones but it is the lesser known that will be a challenge to get to. Many of the remaining parks are a bit more remote and not ones that you plan a whole trip around. The next best thing is to try to squeeze them into other vacations and trips. Such was the opportunity on my trip to Oregon last month. After I made my plane reservations to fly to Portland, my son decided that we would take a 10-hour drive to San Francisco, which is our favorite city in the US.
I probably would have flown to San Fran had I known but, after looking at the map, I saw that I could check off two national parks from my bucket list. This image is from the first park we visited - Lassen Volcanic National Park. I didn't know anything about the park but after reading a bit about it, I expected something that resembled Yellowstone on a smaller level. I couldn't have been more wrong. Most of the park is very scenic and, while there is a vey small section that has thermal features, Mount Lassen is the major feature.
The park road only allows glimpses of the mountain but there are stretches like this one where an unobstructed view is possible. This composition called to me as I spotted Kings Creek meandering through the open field toward Mount Lassen. I just loved the scene and, while I would have preferred sunrise light (this is a westward looking shot), I was quite happy with the colors and the leading line that the creek provided.