Facilities
The facilities are basic: picnic tables, charcoal disposal, and pit toilets.
Overview
About Kings Creek Picnic Area
Why stop
- Shady tables near Kings Creek
Map
Where it is
Loading the Lassen Volcanic map
Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
Facilities
1 active Lassen Volcanic alert
- ClosureJuniper Lake campground and day-use area closedJuniper Lake Campground and day-use area are closed for maintenance and campground-improvement projects. - Potable water is unavailable in the campground.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Lassen Volcanic Tour Guide
Your drive to Kings Creek Picnic Area, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Lassen Volcanic National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Lassen Volcanic audio tourRecorded for this place
Kings Creek Picnic Area and Cold Boiling Lake0:00 / 0:27
“You're coming up on the turnoff for Kings Creek Picnic Area, a shaded place to stop for lunch near the creek.”
Plays as you drive up to Kings Creek Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Lassen Volcanic Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Kings Creek Meadow: A Roadside Wildlife Pause
- Why Snow Turns Pink
- Kings Creek Falls: Cascades and Stone Steps
- Terrace Lake Trailhead: Three Lakes or Two
- 45 audio storiesacross Lassen Volcanic’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Black Bear, Bald Eagle, Mule Deer, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 59 trails, 56 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about Kings Creek Picnic Area
Stop for lunch or start the walkKings Creek Picnic Area is a roadside picnic stop off the Lassen Volcanic National Park…
Kings Creek Picnic Area is a roadside picnic stop off the Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway, with tables under conifers near Kings Creek. It’s an easy place to pause for lunch or stretch your legs. The same turnoff starts the Cold Boiling Lake walk, so a quick break can become a 1.6-mile round trip. The picnic area is reached by a short turnoff about half a mile north of Kings Creek Meadow Viewpoint; the Kings Creek Falls trailhead is a separate stop farther south.
Walk to Cold Boiling LakeThe trail begins here at 7,400 feet. Cold Boiling Lake is 0.
The trail begins here at 7,400 feet. Cold Boiling Lake is 0.8 mile each way along a fairly level path, adding 1.6 miles at that elevation. Small gas bubbles still rise from spots along the shore, a remnant of the lake’s fading hydrothermal activity. Crumbaugh Lake is 1.3 miles one way from the picnic area if you want to continue.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Lassen Volcanic
103 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
44 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
348 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
17 sightingsSandhill CraneMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
47 sightingsGreat Blue HeronMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
12 sightingsGreat EgretMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Lassen Volcanic. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
