Mt. Shasta, 21-Jul
Our first full day around Mt. Shasta had us doing two hikes. One gave us a very close view of the mountain, and the other went between three waterfalls.
We had a relatively slow morning, having breakfast and getting our things together. We wanted to go to the Ranger Station to see if there were some hikes we were missing, and to check if we needed a wilderness permit.
The ranger thought our plans were pretty good, and it was useful to get more information than we already had. After that, it was off to the trailhead.
Panter Meadows to South Gate Meadows
Our first hike started at the Panther Meadows campground. There were a few cars of campers there, but other than that, the parking lot was pretty empty.
Very quickly we got full views of Mt. Shasta from the south. There were a few clouds around, but none that blocked our view. In fact, we saw what looked like a lenticular cloud which is shaped like a donut. They occur around Mt. Rainier a lot, so it was interesting to see it on another mountain. The cloud quickly dissipated.
It didn't take us long to get to Panther Meadows which was very lush and had a small creek running through it. We also started seeing a lot of wildflowers.
After we got through the meadows, we started going towards Red Butte, which gets its name from the red rock it's made of. We also went by the Old Ski Bowl, which was the first developed ski area around Mt. Shasta.
We had finally reached the South Gate Meadows, and the first thing we noticed was all of the wildflowers, especially mountain heath.
As we were walking through the meadow, we kept crossing Yet Atwam Creek, which had many little waterfalls. When we turned our last corner, we saw that at the top of the hill, the creek fanned out to make an impressive fan waterfall, which we spent a lot of time looking at.
We knew that even after turning around, we would still be able to enjoy the creek and meadow for a while before we got to the trail heading past Red Butte. Returning past Panther Meadows, we were soon at the trailhead. We found a place to sit in the campground for lunch, then headed out for another hike.
McCloud Falls
Even though we try to do one hike per day, it was very tempting to do the relatively short McCloud Falls hike since we wouldn't be able to fit it in otherwise. Even though it was on the same side of I-5 as we were, the road we took went over the freeway then did a big loop back to the east side, after which we went several miles east. The road we were on was the McCloud Lassen road, but we knew we didn't want to go quite that far.
The parking lot for the lower falls was full, but plenty of spots were available on the road. When you get past the parking lot, you immediately see the lower falls, which goes into a pool which had many swimmers in and around the water. The path follows the McCloud River upstream, so we started on our way.
Soon after the Lower Falls, we went by Fowlers Camp, and not long after that, the paved trail made way to a dirt path. We kept getting peeks of the river which was thick with umbrella plants on either side. About a mile after Lower Falls, we came to Middle Falls, which were spectacular. Very wide, somewhat high, and another large pool at the base. There was a ledge next to the falls that several people were jumping off of into the pool.
The trail started into some steep switchbacks until we were well above Middle Falls, which gave us a great overview of how they went into the pool. It wasn't that far until we reached Upper Falls, which is taller but much narrower than Middle Falls. There were several viewing platforms, but no access to the falls themselves, so we didn't see people in the water. We could see the top of the falls from behind as well as some of the smaller falls which were upriver.
On the hike back, we stopped by Fowlers Camp to refill our water bottle. A woman standing there pointed out an osprey nest that was at the top of the tree, and it was huge. There was even an osprey looking out of the nest.
Back to the car, we returned to town and cleaned up. We then went for dinner, picked up a couple of items from the store, and then went back to the room for the night.
