We hauled a couple of easterners up to visit Lassen Park in the northeast corner of California today. They'd never heard of the place before. I saw it first about 1970 but before today, I hadn't been back for about a decade. It's a thrilling piece of wild country, with a lot of arresting volcano-related diversions, but basically just a lovely chunk of trees, ponds, mountains and glorious views.
Thing is that here it is July 1 and there was almost no one else up there. I assume the Park service has tons of data on this sort of thing, but I make two guesses. One: it's a winner-take-all world; Lassen doesn't quite make the A-list, so it isn't really on any list at all. And two: I suspect the hippy generation spent more time in the wild--hiking the back country and, yes, tromping in and around Lassen Park. Now we're old and more attuned to three inches of carpet, so Lassen is left to preside over its corner of California in splendid isolation.
