Parking
Use Loomis Plaza across the park highway from the Lily Pond Trailhead; it often fills in summer. Manzanita Lake Day Use Area has additional parking and connects by a short walk on Manzanita Lake Trail.
Overview
About Lily Pond Interpretive Trail
Why go
- A short loop with numbered nature stops, wetland plants and seasonal pond lilies.
Heads up
- The pond is visible only from its north side; there is no full shoreline walk.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Lassen Volcanic map
Full mapElevation5,912–5,961 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
Safety
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 Lily Pond Interpretive Trail, 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 trailhead
Loomis Museum and Reflection Lake0:00 / 0:34
“Loomis Museum is coming up, a small stone museum that's worth a stop if you want the human story behind the volcano. Look for B. F.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Lassen Volcanic Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Crags Lake: Cliffs Above a Seasonal Lake
- Manzanita Lake and the Camper Store
- Manzanita Creek: Forest and a Flowering Meadow
- Lassen Crossroads: Exhibits and a Meeting Place
- 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!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Lily Pond Interpretive Trail
The loopThe Lily Pond Interpretive Trail is an easy loop near Manzanita Lake.
The Lily Pond Interpretive Trail is an easy loop near Manzanita Lake. The full connected walk is about 0.8 miles, starting across the park highway from Loomis Museum and using a short section of the Reflection Lake path before reaching Lily Pond. The current park listing says half a mile; the complete mapped loop is longer, so GPS and printed mileage may differ. Plan about an hour if you stop at the numbered nature markers.
Lily PondThe route reaches the pond’s north side; it isn’t a full shoreline path.
The route reaches the pond’s north side; it isn’t a full shoreline path. Yellow pond-lily flowers are most likely in early summer, and duckweed can spread over the water later in summer. The wet edge supports aquatic insects, frogs, garter snakes and water birds among the willows and alders. If the lilies are blooming, the north-side view gives you the trail’s best close-up.
The volcanic landscapeNumbered stops follow the change from wet shore to forest and volcanic rubble.
Numbered stops follow the change from wet shore to forest and volcanic rubble. Lily Pond lies in a depression in Chaos Jumbles, a rock-avalanche deposit below Chaos Crags. Volcanic sediment builds a sandy delta where rushes and sedges grow. Reflection Lake was once called Mud Lake; in the 1880s, William H. Coffey and John E. Stockton diverted part of Manzanita Creek into it. Three rock avalanches occurred in rapid succession about 300 years ago; their exact cause is unknown.
Getting therePark at Loomis Plaza, across the highway from the trailhead; it often fills in summer.
Park at Loomis Plaza, across the highway from the trailhead; it often fills in summer. Manzanita Lake Day Use Area has additional parking and connects by a short walk on Manzanita Lake Trail. There’s no trail fee or reservation, though park entry requires a pass or fee. Pets aren’t allowed on park trails.
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.
