Gazelle, California

The Dead Falls Lake Trail is perfect for families, dog, and all adventurers. In the spring and summer, there are gorgeous and abundant wildflowers. There is a perfect lunch spot at Deadfall Lake.  Close to the gargantuan Shasta, Mount Eddy is the highest peak in the Klamath Mountain. Mount Eddy ...

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 re...

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 ...

The Fen Trail around Kangaroo Lake is a beautiful secluded camping and hiking area in the Klamath Forest of Northern California. It connects to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), where you can hike up through Oregon and Washington to Canada, or south through to Yosemite.The trailhead starts at the Ka...

Mount Shasta is an incredible mountain in Northern California that offers a great variety of activities. The Gray Butte trail is one of the more beautiful trails in the area, and it's not too long (2.8mi, ~2h). We arrived at Shasta by late afternoon, so it was a great hike to do when golden hour ...

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 ...

The least technical route to the summit of Mt Shasta begins at the Clear Creek Trailhead (elevation 6390 ft). Please note that although this is a less technical route, this is still dangerous and there have been deaths on Mt. Shasta because of falling rock. To start this, you should be a good hik...

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 ...

To start off, you're going to want to navigate to the Etna Summit Trailhead (5956 ft). There's a small parking lot off to the side and we did not need any passes for our overnight trip. Since the summit isn't the main destination for many people in this area, you'll want to follow the Pacific Cre...

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 t...

The trail is a bit rocky, so wear sturdy hiking boots or trail runners. While your elevation gain is only 800 total, you will travel upwards of 1,982ft in elevation given the ups and downs of the trail. At mile 1.75, there is a spring that feeds into a large meadow. At mile 3, there is another sp...

Just 4 hours north of San Francisco, McCloud Falls offers a quick hike and swimming hole for those looking for something less crowded than Burney Falls. McCloud Falls has 3 tiers, but the middle section offers the best views by far. Getting Here To get here, park at the Fowlers Campground which...

The Marble Mountains are part of the Klamaths, a biologically and geologically diverse range of peaks and ridges often overshadowed by its western neighbors in the Cascades. The Marble Rim is the signature feature of this subrange, a white wall of rock that glimmers in the sun. The nearby Sky Hig...

Pilot Rock is one of the most prominent features in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and is visible from over 40 miles away in the Shasta Valley of northern California and the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon.Similar to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, though much smaller in stature, Pilot Rock is ...

The Algoma Campsite is a free campsite along the Upper Portion of the McCloud River. It features eight sites and a pit toilet. Unlike the other campgrounds in the area, this site receives very little traffic and has no fee.  To get there, take SR 89 east from the McCloud Ranger Station for 13 mi...

Hobart Bluff is part of the Western Cascades, a range of weathered volcanic mountains that are much older than the High Cascades that most people think of today, the range of Shasta, Rainier, and Hood. These mountains are shorter as a result of the work of time and usually have summits wrapped in...