davidandmarta.blogspot.com: pnw trip: mt shasta

ah, mystical mt shasta. we didn't intend to put this massive volcano on the itinerary for this trip, instead focusing on national parks (of which shasta is sadly not). we had planned to tour the tule lake japanese internment camp, and then hike and camp in lava beds national monument, where they have things called lava tubes. i was very excited to get into a lava tube. sadly, wildfire consumed 70% of the national monument acreage a week before our trip, and the park was closed. tule lake was closed to tours because of covid, and there went our itinerary.

but fortunately, heading out of crater lake and through rural south oregon gets to several cool spots, and one of them is mt shasta. and i am so glad we shifted to a visit to shasta. that mountain was visible from crater lake, and loomed on the horizon the whole drive down from crater lake, as if calling to us. i'd been straining my eyes to see it for 3 days, and if we hadn't planned to visit it, i think i would have been very sad. so we went!

getting bigger, getting closer!

we drove through brittle dry ranch land in southern oregon, and all i could think about was wildfire risk, and the recent wildfire that had closed lava beds, and how this whole zone seemed such high risk. and as i write this, the road we drove along (the volcanic legacy highway!) is plagued by wildfire. we had to pull over to let a big moo-ing herd of cattle pass,

and then we were in california and we could pump our own gas again. i truly will never understand that phenomenon in oregon.

shasta grew larger and larger in front of us, and when we got there, we drove up the south face to nearly the highest point reachable by car. it was a hot day, but i wanted to hike on this volcano.

the wildflowers were blooming, and we hit the trail up to gray butte, through panther meadow.

the trail was so beautiful, but about halfway there, ramona ran out of steam (she is truly a winter child) and sat the hike out with david in the shade of the forested part of the trail.

james and i kept going, and moved through some very dramatic beauty to reach the trails end on the spine of the butte.

on our way back down, i was so hot that i stuck my head in the stream in the meadow. it was glorious.

after the hike, we loaded up and found our campground on the shores of lake siskiyou, which was a welcome swimming beach after the hot dry hiking.

later, campsite diner, trip journaling, marshmallows, and kid antics. every night.

in the morning, david and i were up first (as usual) and i saw just the tiniest peeks of the kids little bodies in the camper van. that van was very much starting to feel like home.