Lassen Volcanic NP – Perseid Meteor Shower

Posted by Karen on 11-Aug-2005

I drove up to Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California to join Maria, her son Francis, Paul, Lisa and her friends Elliot and Aleece for a weekend of camping, hiking, swimming and star gazing.  I arrived late at the Summit North Campground, just before Maria and Francis were going to bed.  I quietly pitched my tent at Maria’s campsite and then grabbed my lawn chair and went down to the lake to wait for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower later that night.  The meteor shower happens over several weeks, but the peak was to be that morning from around 2am to 4am.  Only one other soul across the lake appeared to awake at that time; on my side of the lake the grazing deer and I kept startling each other in the dark.  The night temperature dropped down way colder than I anticipated, so I only made it to about 2:30am before I crawled into the relative warmth of my tent.  I saw the beginning of the show and tried my hand at some night photography, but only succeeded in inadvertently changing all my camera settings.  Still, it was fun to see the beginning of the meteor shower–next year I’m in a warmer place!