Virtual Guidebook to Lassen Volcanic National Park and the Modoc Plateau
Cinder Cone
Lassen Volcanic National Park California

The Cinder Cone is so fresh and new looking that pioneers who rolled past here in covered wagons on a branch of the Oregon Trail reported that it was still warm. Current scientific analysis puts its last eruption about 1650.

It is a great hike, a mile or so along Nobles Cutoff (connecting the Oregon Trail to the Sacramento Valley) through a beautiful pine forest. Then it climbs very steeply up the cone on an almost angle-of-repose slope. But the views make it worth the effort - the Painted Dunes (volcanic ash drifts) and the Fantastic Lava Beds surround the cone. Also in view are Prospect Peak, a shield volcano, Lassen Peak, a plug dome, and two lava-flow dammed lakes.