Ragged craters, barren lava dunes and steaming thermal areas contrast with placid lakes and lush evergreen forests in this 106,000-acre national park, testifying to the awe-inspiring power of earth's destructive and healing forces. The park is dominated by looming Lassen Peak, a 10,457ft plug dome volcano renowned for a series of devastating eruptions that occurred between 1914 and 1917. Though no eruption has been recorded for 90 years, the peak, one of the largest dome volcanoes in the world, still contains an active magma chamber and is considered very much alive. There are numerous hiking trails in the park, from the pleasant Kings Creek Falls Trail(3mi round-trip), which leads through forests and meadowland to a series of cascades formed as Kings Creek plunges over polished stone ledges, to the arduous Lassen Peak Trail (5mi round-trip; 2,000ft elevation gain), which scales the barren gray volcanic done. The trail through Bumpass Hell (3mi round-trip) is perhaps the most intriguing geologically, winding along the eroded remains of Mt. Tehama and offering views to the southwest of Diamond Peak (7,968ft) and Brokeoff Mountain (9,235ft) before descending into the steaming, odoriferous thermal area. A boardwalk leads past surface cracks that billow with sulfuric fumaroles (holes in the ground that emit steam and gas); boiling springs; and thick, bubbling mudpots fueled by a chamber of magma (molten igneous rock) far underground. Despite this subterranean fury, the park gets an average of 40ft of snow a year, sometimes as late as May. Check road conditions before setting out.