Castle Lake Trail

Heart Lake Trail From Castle Lake is an out-and-back trail where you may see beautiful wildflowers located near Dunsmuir, California.

Scenes like this are rarely so accessible. Heart Lake is nestled in a bowl below Castle Peak, on the edge of the Castle Crags Wilderness just west of I-5 and the city of Mt. Shasta. The parking lot and trailhead are both located on the shore of Castle Lake, a much larger lake that is stunning in its own right, backed up against a rugged wall of rock. Castle Lake is lovely, but Heart Lake is eve...

Disclaimer: Hiking to the falls is trespassing. Fines can be as much as $300. If you choose to hike to the falls, you're doing so at your own risk so please be cautious and cognizant of your surroundings. If you live anywhere near Northern California or Southern Oregon, you may have heard about Mossbrae Falls, which is located in the very scenic area of the Shasta Cascade region in California....

One of the gems in the Shasta area, Castle Crags. You can spot these dramatic granite towers from a distance and their jagged formations beckon climbers and hikers alike. Imagine a slice of the Dolomites plucked out of Italy and placed in Northern California. Crags Trail to Castle Dome winds up through the shaded Shasta-Trinity Forest with beautiful views of the mighty Mt. Shasta. Expect a bit ...

Note: February thru early March are great times to climb it for a winter ascent without snowshoes. If there is no snow seen from the south (e.g. on I-5 heading north to Mount Shasta City), don't be too worried. As long as there is snow on the surrounding peaks (e.g. Trinity Alps) around the same elevation (4,000+ feet), there should still be snow on the northern slopes of Black Butte.Most of th...

Black Butte is hard to miss from I-5 as it winds past the city of Mount Shasta. This lava dome formed roughly 9,000–10,000 years ago and isn't a cinder cone, though it does look like one. The rock that makes Black Butte was extruded instead of spewed, then broke apart as it cooled. The jumbled results of this volcanic event give the hike its character, never too terribly steep but always intere...