Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary
from the heart of the great black forests of Northern California,' wrote poet Joaquin Miller
on the sight of this lovely mountain. A sight of it is so awe-inspiring that the new age
prattle about its power as an 'energy vortex' begins to sound plausible even after a first
glimpse.
There are a million ways to explore the mountain and surrounding Shasta-Trinity Na-
tional Forest, depending on the season - you can take scenic drives or get out and hike,
mountain-bike, raft, ski or snowshoe. At Mt Shasta's base sit three excellent little towns:
Dunsmuir, Mt Shasta City and McCloud. Each community has a distinct personality, but
all share a wild-mountain sensibility and first-rate restaurants and places to stay. In the
same dramatic vicinity rise the snaggle-toothed peaks of Castle Crags, just 6 miles west of
Dunsmuir.
Northeast of Mt Shasta, a long drive and a world away, is remote, eerily beautiful Lava
Beds National Monument, a blistered badland of petrified fire. The contrasting cool wet-
lands of Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges are just west of Lava Beds.
Further east, high desert plateaus give way to the mountains of the northern Sierra.
Folks in this remote area are genuinely happy to greet a traveler, even if they're a bit un-
certain why you've come.
Mt Shasta
'When I first caught sight of it I was 50 miles away and afoot, alone and weary. Yet all my
blood turned to wine, and I have not been weary since,' wrote naturalist John Muir of Mt
Shasta in 1874. Mt Shasta's beauty is intoxicating, and the closer you get to her the headier
you begin to feel. Dominating the landscape, the mountain is visible for more than 100
miles from many parts of Northern California and southern Oregon. Though not Califor-
nia's highest peak (at 14,162ft it ranks fifth), Mt Shasta is especially magnificent because
it rises alone on the horizon, unrivaled by other mountains.
Mt Shasta is part of the vast volcanic Cascade chain that includes Lassen Peak to the
south and Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier to the north in Washington state. The presence of
thermal hot springs indicates that Mt Shasta is dormant, not extinct. Smoke was seen puff-
ing out of the crater on the summit in the 1850s, though the last eruption was about 200
years ago. The mountain has two cones: the main cone has a crater about 200yd across; the
