Painted Dunes

Painted Dunes are bands of orange, red, cream and gray ash laid over lava at the foot of Cinder Cone, in Lassen's remote Butte Lake corner. The first view is from a fork on the Cinder Cone Trail, 1.2 miles from the Butte Lake day-use area; go there and back for 2.4 miles if the colored slopes are your main goal. Stay on the established trail because footprints scar the soft surface. Continuing to the summit makes a four-mile round trip; budget about three hours. Loose cinders feel like coarse sand, and the final 200 feet are steep, but the payoff is a much wider view of the dunes, Fantastic Lava Beds, Snag Lake, Prospect Peak and Lassen Peak.

The trailhead is near the boat ramp in the park's northeast corner, reached by six miles of dirt road from Highway 44. The dunes are a hike from there, not a roadside pullout. There is parking and a public restroom at the Butte Lake day-use area, but no food service or other supplies in this corner. Drinking water is available at the campground when it is open, so don't count on it year-round.

These are volcanic ash hills, not wind-built sand dunes. Ash fell onto lava flows while the rock was still hot; the heat oxidized the ash into the reds, oranges and grays that make the slopes look painted. The broad bands sit against dark, rough lava, so the colors read clearly even from the trail fork.

Radiocarbon evidence dates the Cinder Cone eruptive sequence to roughly AD 1630–1670, likely within a few months. Stories that place the eruption in the early 1850s are not supported by the later geologic evidence. The ash and lava belong to an older eruptive phase than the cone's youngest scoria and the Fantastic Lava Beds.

Some Painted Dunes lava flows blocked Grassy Creek and formed Snag Lake. Trees drowned as the water rose; their remains later helped researchers date the eruption. From Cinder Cone's summit, the lake, black lava field and colored slopes fit into one view, making the connection between the dunes and the surrounding volcanic landscape easy to see.

The approach follows a stretch of the Nobles Emigrant Trail, one of the routes emigrants used to cross what is now the park. That old route is part of the California National Historic Trail, so the walk combines the vivid volcanic scenery with a documented travel corridor.

At the first fork, look south, to the left, for the dunes; frame the red and gray bands against the dark lava. From the summit, widen the shot to include Snag Lake and the peaks beyond. Keep your feet on the trail or cone path: walking across the dunes leaves scars.