On May 13th, we arrived at Redding, staying at the Mountain Gate RV Park, near Mt Shasta. We drove to McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park and explored beautiful Burney Falls. Burney Falls, called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by President Theodore Roosevelt, falling129 feet, is truly magnificent. In March 2021, a National Geographic article declared the site to be one of “northern California’s most spectacular waterfalls”. The water comes from underground springs above and at the falls, which are 129 feet high, and provides an almost constant flow rate of 379 million litres per day. Several movies with scenes filmed at Burney Falls include, Stand by Me(1986), The Parson and the Outlaw(1957), and Tarzan’s Fight for Life(1958). Click on thumbnail to view image

Burney Falls

McCloud Falls

We walked along the McCloud River Trail passing by three beautiful waterfalls as it winds through a canyon of basalt lava rock. We started at the Upper Falls overlook, and viewed the water shooting out of the rocks with power and dropping 25 feet. Then we arrived at the Middle McCloud Falls overlook and walked down to see the waterfall from below to get a different perspective. The pool at the base of the falls was very inviting and there were people swimming in the cool water. We enjoyed this waterfall the best of the three. Lower McCloud Falls, drops 12-15 feet onto an emerald pool, is the smallest of the three. Then we drove back to Mt Shasta for a well deserved meal at Yaks Restaurant. Click on thumbnail to view image

Castle Crags State Park

We had driven past this park so many times, but today we had time to go in and explore Castle Crags State Park. Castle Crags is a dramatic and well-known rock formation, the elevations range from 2,000 feet along the Sacramento River near the base of the crags to over 6,500 feet at the summit of the tallest crag. We hiked the Root Creek Trail, a 5.2 R/T hike to the Root Creek Falls and started the hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. We reached the multi-tiered Root Creek Falls flowing from the Castle Dome, at 6,500 feet tall. We got back to the car and drove to the lookout of Castle Crags and saw a clear view of Mt Shasta in the distance. Click on thumbnail to view image