Lassen Sunset
The day didn't start that well, but it finished strong. Due to a planning mistake on my part, we were in the wrong place for sunrise. Nothing worse than getting up at 4am and driving an hour to the sunrise location only to watch the sun light the up the boring scene behind you rather than the carefully chosen scene in front of you!
And then, since I had been whining about "boring featureless blue skies" since our last trip, I was rewarded with overcast conditions all morning. :(
But we made the best of it and changed some plans around a little bit. And then the sun broke through around 3pm after we had hiked a very steep trail up to Ridge Lakes. It was about the steepest hike I have ever done - not what we needed after Rich and I both woke up in the middle of the night with leg cramps.
The photo above is of Lassen Peak at sunset. This is the volcano the park was named after. It last erupted in 1917. The planning for sunset was way better than the sunrise planning - and so was the light. We watched the peak turn from white to yellow to finally a deep red color.