Ahjumawi

Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park lies in the Northeast corner of California, about 50 miles East of Redding on Hwy 299. Among its claims are "most remote" and "least visited" state park in California and the "largest system of fresh-water springs" in the country. "Most remote" is relative - it is maybe if you're coming from the Bay Area or SoCal, but certainly not if you live in McArthur, which is 3 miles away. It may be the "least visited", probably because you can only access the campsites by boat, but when we arrived at the launch there were a couple dozen folks bringing in their motorboats after a morning spin on the lakes.The most common description of the park on the internet is "exceptional, even primeval, beauty", which seems to have been copied from the park website. (see side bar)

The primeval beauty didn't strike us at first as we launched from the "Rat Farm" with clouds obscuring views of the peaks, but by the next day I agreed with the description. The lava springs are unique in my experience with cool clear water flowing from the porous lava rock by Ja-she Creek to feed the lakes.
The campsites are relatively close to the launch so, hoping to get in a little more paddling, we headed off downwind to paddle around Big Lake, knowing we'd have to battle to get back. Big Lake wasn't named Huge Lake for a reason, but there is a good hour of paddling to get around it. As if on cue, the breeze picked up and threatened rain as soon as we pointed our bow back upwind. We were rewarded with some great views of Mt. Shasta peaking through the clouds in the distance though. Passing back by the Rat Farm we entered Horr Pond to see that another group had already claimed the first campground. There are actually 3 sites at each campground, but we decided to keep fighting the wind to get a campground all to ourselves.


Being one of the least visited state parks, there is not a lot of information on it to be found and the best map to be found was the simple outline of the lakes that I printed from the park website. Comparing the map to a Google Earth view when we got back home, we found that the map must be quite out-of-date, and for that reason it took us a while to find the Crystal Springs and Ja-she Creek sites. See the comparison above. It appears that a levy holding back the Tule River breached flooding the peninsula between Horr Pond and the river. It actually creates a much larger area to explore by canoe.
We eventually happened upon the Ja-she Creek campsites and set-up there for two nights without seeing any other people for the rest of the weekend. The day after arriving we hiked about 9 miles on the park trails to see the volcanic splatter cones, depressions and lava tubes. Definitely worth the trip!

If you're visiting the park and looking for something to eat on the way in or out check out 'Hal & Kathy's Cook House' in Fall River Mills. It's great! We found it on our drive out after a pack-up and paddle out in the rain.

Burney Falls is worth the side trip.