52 Weeks of Fun

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Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass

Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway

Explore remarkable geological features and how they helped shape the area’s legacy while descending into a lava tube, climbing to a crater rim, walking through a mountain of glass or soaking in a volcano’s crater.

After a few days in Redding, visitors can start their journey on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway by taking Highway 44 east to begin a loop tour of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park is home to Lassen Peak, one of the largest plug dome volcanoes in the world. Geothermal features like the boiling mud pots and steaming fumaroles of Bumpass Hell, Boiling Springs Lakes, and Terminal Geyser attest to the heat that lies just beneath the surface, causing the last eruption in 1914.

The park is also home to 150 miles of trails and opportunities for swimming, boating, fishing, cycling, and backcountry hiking and camping. At the Loomis Museum, visitors can learn about the cultural and geologic history of the park as well as get information about programs and events. There are also naturalist-led programs.

Once the area has been explored, return on Highway 36 to Red Bluff, then north back to Redding. To begin the second part of the tour, drive north to Mount Shasta. The Mount Shasta Region offers travelers the opportunity to get up close to a stratovolcano. The 14,162-foot Mount Shasta has an eruptive past, with four vents on the mountain itself and four more on Black Butte, the plug dome to the north.

In Mount Shasta City, take Everitt Memorial Highway to an elevation of 8,000 feet on the slopes of the mountain. At Bunny Flat visitors can stop just for the view or to hike the trail to the cabin at Horse Camp where they can drink from the spring during early summer. Enter the highway from Interstate 5 north at Weed.

From Weed, continue on Highway 97 to the Lava Beds National Monument, home to hundreds of caves created by underground lava flows. The Visitors Center has information about the Modoc Indian War of 1872-73 and Captain Jack’s Stronghold, which the Modocs used as a fortress to hold off the U.S. Army.

Continue north on US 97 through Klamath Falls, Oregon. The Klamath Basin is the wintering grounds and migration stop for billions of North American birds. The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway ends at Crater Lake, northeast of Klamath Falls on Highway 138.

Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass
Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass

A 52 Weeks of Fun Fascinating Fact about Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway

Lassen Peak is the largest lava dome on Earth.

Attraction Advice

The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway is 500 miles long. Visitors can drive it in two days or take five days to enjoy Redding and other stops along the way. There are no fees to travel along the highway.



Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass

Located in the shadow of Mount Shasta, the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden is dedicated to the many fallen by war and the effects of war.
Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass

Bumpass Hell is a 16-acre basin of plopping mudpots, bubbling pools, and roaring steam vents, the largest of eight such areas in the park.
Volcanic Legacy Scenic Bypass

Lassen Peak is the southern-most volcano in the Shasta-Cascade range, last erupting a little over a century ago.
Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway

The Pinnacles are a group of volcanic pumice spires, colored various shades of grey and brown near Crater Lake National Park.

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