Earlier this year I learned that California was home the largest, tallest, and oldest trees in the world (the Sequoia, Redwood, and Bristlecone Pine respectively). I visited Redwoods as a kid but felt an urgency to see the other two as soon as possible. I didn't want to miss my chance to a forest fire or natural disaster. A few months later my brother and I planned a trip, but its scale grew to something much more substantial, we had five days to see six National Parks. We knew that the trip would not be one of depth, but more of sampling in these magnificent places.
We left early in the morning heading down towards northern California through the Cascades to their Southernmost tip, stopping a few times to stretch our legs and take in the new scenery before getting to Lassen NP. As time was a drastically limited resource, we explored as much as possible as fast as we were able. We got off the beaten path a few times exploring what we could, but only had time for one hike. We decided to make time to see the Sulfur Works taking the trail down to Bumpass Hell. It smelled horrible, like everyone in front of us had been farting for miles.
That night we saw a sunset like nothing I've ever seen before. Being so close to the foothills on the East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we became blanketed in its shadow pretty early in the evening. As the sun slowly drew closer to the western horizon over the Pacific, it lit up the clouds above the range as if the whole mountain was on fire. It was fiercely beautiful.
