First Church
of Winsted

Serving Our Community Since 1778
All Are Welcome



DAY 3





Swimming, Snow Angles, and a Volcano



We rose early as we were heading to Lassen National Park which was about an hour and ½ away. We had a quick breakfast of cereal and bagels and headed out by 7:30am. It was an incredible drive as we travelled through miles of beautiful forest offset my miles of burn scars where the land after five years is still devastated by the wildfires. We got up to Major’s Outpost which we thought was going to be a little store/marina on the lake was more like a white tent and several pontoon boats but was gorgeous! The boat held all of us along with an inflatable slide. On the drive up the temperatures fluctuated between 55 and 95 depending on the elevation and we started the day at 68 which got up to 90 by noontime.





The kids swam and slide down the slide. Julian practice his diving with a lot of direction from the spectators (the kids) and they all took turns on the slide with Sierra sliding the smoothest and the bigger guys barreling down! Mike cooked us burgers on the grill for lunch and it was a perfect afternoon on the water.


From the boat we could see the main volcano, Lassen Peak, which still had snow on it!





There are actually 4 volcanos in total which were made by the main volcano blowing up in 1915. We left the lake and drove about 45 minutes up to the start of the park where we stopped at the visitor station and then follow a 30 mile drive which led to 16 stops where you could get out and view, hike and admire the beautiful vista, The most interesting stops were the one where there was still snow on the ground and Pastor Wu made a snow angel and the sulfur mud pots where there is boiling sulfur that smelled 100 times worse then rotten eggs. It took your breath away. We stop at Emerald Lake, that was a beautiful bright green due to the vegetation that grew in it.





We hiked a short trail to see the many boulders (larger than us) that were blow 3 miles from the volcano when it exploded. By early evening we were all exhausted and headed home with a quick stop at a road side outdoor place to eat where we sat and watch a bunch of little kids play soccer and corn hole while we ate. It was a 14 hour day and by the time we headed home we were all ready foe bed except for Pastor Wu who went out and finished his 2 ¾ miles to complete his steps for the day and also filled the van with gas! A good man never rest!





First Church of Winsted



95 N. Main St, Winsted, CT 06098