Castle Crags Wilderness – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Flume Trail (Castle Crags State Park, CA) 21-Jul-2021

2021-07-212022-02-06Posted in Hiking, Northern CaliforniaTagged Bob's Hat Trail, Castle Crags State Park, Castle Crags Wilderness, Day Hiking, Flume Trail, Hiking, Northern California, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), PCT2 Comments

After going high for our first hike in the Mount Shasta area, we decided to go some 4,000 feet (1,220 m) lower for our second. Specifically, a loop formed from the Flume and Bob’s Hat Trails and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in Castle Crags State Park. We got another early start but noticed that the heat built sooner and higher down here than it had up at Boulder Peak. That said, there was plenty of shade and even a few, still flowing, water courses to keep the heat at bay – at least in the morning. But we were back in town – “rehydrating” – before it got too hot. 😅

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The Seven Summits of NorCal (July 2018)

2018-07-112022-01-30Posted in California Wilderness Areas, Hiking, Northern CaliforniaTagged Backpacking, California, Castle Crags Wilderness, Hiking, Marble Mountain Wilderness, Mount Shasta Wilderness, Northern California, Red Buttes Wilderness, Russian Wilderness, Siskiyou Wilderness, Trinity Alps Wilderness4 Comments

In 2015, I came across a small book (The 7 Summits of the Siskiyou Trail) by Aria Zoner – an Ashland-based ultra hiker~backpacker~peakbagger – that described a 448-mile long hiking loop through seven wilderness areas in Northern California (NorCal), with scramble climbs (Class 3 or less) of the high points in each wilderness. While 448 miles seemed a bit much, these seven hikes/scrambles looked like fun, so we added them to our never-diminishing list of hikes to do just in case the couch started to look too inviting (assuming, of course, the cat ever lets us sit on it…).

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“Sabin’s Point” (Castle Crags Wilderness) 07-Jan-2018

2018-01-072022-01-30Posted in California Wilderness Areas, Hiking, Northern CaliforniaTagged Burstarse Falls California, California, Castle Crags State Park, Castle Crags Wilderness, Castle Dome, Northern California, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), PCT, Ugly Creek California3 Comments

Sabin's Point Castle Crag Wilderness California

Although recent weather forecasts are being cagey about snow, they did offer up a sunny day (or most of one) in Northern California. Going to our ever growing file of hikes to be done before we become compost, I pulled out a hike on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) along the southern edge of the Castle Crags Wilderness to an outcrop the Ashland Hiking Group has informally named “Sabin’s Point.” I sweetened the deal with a night in Mount Shasta, California and The LovedOne was all in for it. Previously, we’d hiked up the Castle Dome Trail and even climbed the Dome itself, but this would be our first foray to the Crags’ southwest side.

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Gray Rock Lake (Castle Crags Wilderness) 30-Jun-2016

2016-07-012022-01-29Posted in California Wilderness Areas, Hiking, Northern CaliforniaTagged California, Castle Crags State Park, Castle Crags Wilderness, Castle Dome, Day Hiking, Gray Rock Lake, Harry Watkins Peak, Hiking, Mount Shasta, Upper Gray Rock Lake California

Castle Crags Wilderness Northern California

In search of the highpoints in seven of Northern California’s wilderness areas, we went for a short hike and scramble in the small (10,609 acre) Castle Crags Wilderness, located just west of the town of Mount Shasta, California (details). The area is probably best known for the Castle Crags, a dramatic formation of towering granite spires – ranging in height from 2,000 feet at their base along the Sacramento River to over 7,200 feet at the summit of the tallest crag. The largest are clearly visible from Interstate 5 just south of Mount Shasta. In 2011, we climbed well-known Castle Dome (4,966 feet) from Castle Crags State Park on the south side of the wilderness (post).

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Castle Dome (Castle Crags State Park) 14-Aug-2011

2011-08-142022-01-28Posted in California, Hiking, Northern CaliforniaTagged California, Castle Crags State Park, Castle Crags Wilderness, Castle Dome, Day Hiking, Hiking, Northern California, Scramble

After finally hiking Mount Lassen the day before, we thought it would be fun to try climbing Castle Dome (4,700 feet) in Castle Crags State Park. We also figured this might be our last chance since the park is slated to be closed next year because of California’s budget woes. The most popular hiking route is the Crags Trail which leads to spectacular views from the base of Castle Dome. Our goal was to climb the Regular Route (high Class 3 – low Class 4) to the summit of the Dome, where the view was anticipated to be even bigger! Although Sullivan describes climbing the Dome itself (Hike #98 in his Southern Oregon & Northern California guide (Second Edition)), his description of the actual climbing route isn’t very detailed, so we used the one from SummitPost. It’s not a technical climb in the strictest sense but (as Sullivan says) it’s only for “confident scramblers” – as there are places where a slip could have very tragic consequences.

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