Sunrise light catching steam from the fumaroles of Bumpass Hell, framed by mountain hemlock, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Sunrise in Hell

Bumpass Hell, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

I scouted this the previous day and came back for it early. Cold air is the whole trick — the colder the morning, the more the vents give you, and at sunrise there was several times the steam I had seen in the middle of the day. The hemlocks were the other half of it. Without something solid in the corners, steam has nothing to be measured against.

Nikon Z 7_2 · NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S · 120mm · f/11 · 1/160 · ISO 31

July 1, 2026

Back to Lassen Volcanic

More from Bumpass Hell, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

Turquoise and milky-white hydrothermal pools and a dark mud pot in the crust at Bumpass Hell, Lassen Volcanic National Park.

More from Lassen Volcanic

Full moon beside alpenglow on Lassen Peak, reflected in the still water of Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park.Sunrise light on Manzanita Lake seen through pine trunks from the campground, Lassen Volcanic National Park.Black and white photo of a lone hiker on the steep cinder slope of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park.Black and white view across the crater rim of Cinder Cone, its cinder slopes curving away, Lassen Volcanic National Park.A lone pine on the oxidised orange and black ash of the Painted Dunes at sunset, Lassen Volcanic National Park.