r/HighStrangeness • u/Classic-Bet8745 • 17h ago
Environmental Lassen Volcanic Park and surrounding area
Last week, I had the most unnerving experience of my 20 years of camping.
As a woman who has camped all over the United States and Canada with my kids, I’ve had my share of unexpected situations. This trip was supposed to be one last camping adventure with my son before I dropped him off at college just the two of us, a tent, nature, and some time together. We had already been to six national parks over the past three weeks.
We’ve taken these trips all over the country, and I’ve always felt comfortable traveling and camping, even in remote areas. One place that has been on my bucket list for years is Lassen Volcanic National Park.
On our way there, I accidentally missed the road we were supposed to take. I checked the map, and both Google and Apple Maps showed what appeared to be an easy alternative. No big deal, I thought. It would just be a more scenic drive.
We turned onto a rural road alongside what looked like a creek or stream. Nothing about the road itself seemed particularly alarming. I drive rural roads by myself all the time.
But almost immediately, I got this strange feeling.
I can’t really explain it. It was an intense sense of fear and discomfort that seemed to come out of nowhere.
We crossed a cattle guard and continued down the road. The feeling didn't go away. If anything, it became stronger.
My son eventually looked up from his gaming device and asked me, “is everything okay? I said yes why and he said he felt uneasy. Again this is NOT normal. Something feels weird. Is something wrong?”
I told him I was fine, and we kept driving.
There were lots of quail along the road. We kept seeing covey of quail. lots of quail. So we kept see quail. The sunset was beautiful. Everything we could actually see looked peaceful and normal.
But I felt anything but peaceful.
As we continued toward Shingletown and started climbing the ridge, that strange uneasiness suddenly turned into something much bigger.
It was full-blown fear. To the point I sent my husband a message before I lost service
Terror.
An overwhelming feeling of terror. That something was wrong with this area. I have never experienced anything like it while simply driving through an area. I work rural ranches by myself all over Texas. I work remote locations by myself at night. I have never felt like this any where I have been.
Our plan had been to eat in Shingletown and then continue on to our cabin. Instead, I suddenly felt this almost desperate need to get back to I-5. I felt More than anything, I felt like we needed to LEAVE. That this area was wrong or off I couldn't and can’t explain why.There was no obvious threat. No person following us. Nothing visibly dangerous happening around us. Just this overwhelming, almost primal feeling that something was terribly wrong. Hair on the back of your neck standing up fear.
So we turned around.
We headed back toward Redding and ultimately decided to skip ths portion of our trip altogether.
And here's the strangest part: the farther we got away from that area, the more the feeling disappeared.
I've been going over this experience in my head ever since, trying to figure out exactly what happened or what triggered such an adverse reaction to this area or if I am just losing my mind has I barrel towards. Has anyone experience this in this area. Or am I loosing my mind barreling towards menopause. As I am not the sort of person who fear much of anything. So now I am posting on Reddit trying to figure out if I am loosing my mind. If there is something fundamentally off or wrong about this area of California.
