Oct. 28, 2011- Whirlwind tour of Mt. Lassen National Park

Bad luck -- we enter the park to find a controlled burn in progress.

The burn area extended to the opposite side of the road, right up to the north park entrance's visitor's center.

The smoke made for some nice sunlight effects but made it tough to hang around and breathe. Fortunately, wind was nonexistent, so smoke did not interfere with our views farther into the park.

Even the rocks are alive here.

Maybe a refugee from the fire.

We probably missed most of the fall colors for the season, but some aspens were still providing a colorful show.

Many of the forests around Mt. Lassen seem to be relatively young, probably due to the fact that Mt. Lassen has erupted as recently as 1915.

Looks like it does grow on the north side!

The trail to Mt. Lassen's summit.

Bonsai prototypes.

A whole forest of bonsai!