Cinder Cone and the Fantastic Lava Beds, Volcanic formation in Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, US.

Cinder Cone is a conical volcanic formation surrounded by extensive black lava fields in Lassen Volcanic National Park. The landscape features a mix of older and newer lava flows with scattered volcanic rocks across the terrain.

The cone last erupted around 1650, creating the extensive black lava flows visible across the landscape today. This represents one of the most recent volcanic events in the region.

The name Cinder Cone comes from the loose scoria and ash that built the 210 m cone. The Fantastic Lava Beds were named for the blocky basalt flows that dammed Grassy Creek, creating Snag Lake and then Butte Lake. The Nobles Emigrant Trail runs along the edge of the lava beds past Snag Lake.

The Nobles Emigrant Trail runs around Snag Lake and along the edge of the Fantastic Lava Beds, giving hikers a marked route past the flows. The climb to the summit crosses loose scoria, so footing is unstable on the way up and down. The cone stands 1.5 mi (2.4 km) southwest of Butte Lake, where the trailhead and parking area are.

The Fantastic Lava Beds carry quartz xenocrysts, foreign crystals geologists believe were torn from wall rock as magma rose toward the surface. The lava also holds blocks of red, cemented scoria from an earlier cone, carried away by the flow.