Watch for falling pine cones

©2012 Lydia Hinshaw

Our spacious campsite at Lassen NP

. . .and three of the falling objects we avoided

 LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, CA -- Wednesday we found ourselves a spacious campsite with a prickly ponderosa problem.
 We were eating dinner when we heard the first THUNK of something heavy landing in the sandy soil.  It happened once more before we traced the noise to the pair of ponderosa pines that shared our site.
 The trees were letting go of sap-laden cones which must have weighed close to a pound each. Fortunately, our picnic table was safely out of the target area, and once we figured out what was happening, we didn't walk close to the trees except for quick trips to collect evidence.
 The picture shows three of the pine cones, next to a standard roll of paper towels for scale.  The two trees in the background are the culprits.
 In spite of the hazards, we enjoyed our evening in Lassen, a lovely but mostly forgotten park, one of the least-visited in the country.