Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park

Mount Shasta is a dormant volcano (last eruption: 1786) that rises 14,000 feet from out of the southern Cascade Mountain Range.  Its majestic peak is a welcome landmark if you've been driving north through the grueling Sacramento Valley on the Interstate 5 for three hours.  Surreal, mushroom-like cloud formations often engulf the Shasta peak.  If keeping with the past 4,500 year eruption pattern, Mt. Shasta will erupt again in roughly 400 years, by which time the city of Mount Shasta will have re-located to Shambala and Lemuria.  Here are some pictures of the mountain along with some shots of the rural town of Montague, CA, a forty minute drive north.

Footage of Mt. Shasta as seen from HWY 5 and filmed by Vince, my indispensable barbarian cameraman co-pilot:

Lassen Volcanic National Park is home to Lassen Peak, one of two volcanoes in the contiguous U.S to have erupted in the 20th century (the other being Mount St. Helens).  Located eighty miles south-east of Mt. Shasta, Lassen Peak is also part of the Cascade Range.  It's well worth a visit, even if it's just a day trip and you're on crutches (if you are, prepare for an rentless barrage of congratulations and support from total strangers; it's as though you've won a marathon).  Here are some pictures and footage of a small part of the park as well as Bumpass Hell, a smoldering sulphuric hydrothermal basin featuring mudpots, fumaroles, and tourists.