July 23, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 7
	July 21, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 5
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Driving From Bend, OR to Mt. Shasta

We began our day, which we planned to spend in the Mt. Shasta area, by heading southwest out of Bend, OR, along Highway 97. As soon as we got out of town, we could see Mt. Shasta in the distance as we drove down the highway. The area we were driving through was fairly flat, and we understood that it was one of the main farming areas in Southern Oregon on land just east of the main Cascade Range. As we drove down the highway, I made a movie of the view ahead, and you can watch it with the player below:

After a short ways, we saw signs for a turnoff to an overlook and roadside park (point #1 on the map), and we turned in to the overlook- which you can see with the movie player at left.

Dominating the landscape, Mt. Shasta can be seen for 100 miles from certain points- drawing hikers, skiers and travelers. Mt. Shasta rises 11,000 feet from its base to its summit for a total elevation of 14,162 feet above sea level- the 49th largest in the nation. It is one of the southernmost volcanoes in the Cascade Range and is the second tallest, falling short of Mt. Ranier by 248 feet. It has a 17-mile diameter with 5 glaciers, the Whitney glacier being the largest in California. The most recent eruption occurred in 1786 and was witnessed from the sea by the explorer La Perouse. We learned all of this from the sign at the viewpoint, which is where we took this picture of myself and Fred here at the viewpoint.

While we were here at the view point, we took quite a few other pictures of Mt. Shasta and the area around the viewpoint, and I have put thumbnails for some of these pictures below. To look at the full-size images, just click on the thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We left the viewpoint and continued southwest on highway 97, and as we passed into California, I took another movie of Mt. Shasta ahead of us (taken at point #2 on the map), and you can watch it with the movie player at right.

When we got through the town of Weed, California, we did some planning for our day, and decided to head directly for some waterfalls we'd read about in one of our hiking books- these being on the McCloud River somewhat south of Mt. Shasta itself. Then, we would work our way back to Mt. Shasta.

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The McCloud River and McCloud Falls

So, we got on I-5 near the town of Weed, California, and headed south on the interstate. We passed the town of Mt. Shasta and the gateway to the mountain itself, and then exited on California 89 towards the town of McCloud, California.

We passed through McCloud and eventually found the turnoff for the McCloud River State Park and McCloud Falls. This pretty county road lead through thick forest almost straight south, and we eventually saw the sign for the state park, which we found with no problem at all.

When we reached the parking area, we found a shady spot to park and thought that before we did anything else, we would stop and have some lunch at one of the picnic areas nearby. We got our stuff unpacked from the car, and went over to sit down. As usual, I just munched on a bag of shelled peanuts. Once again, as had happened a couple of days ago, we found that we had an audience for lunch- chipmunks obviously waiting for scraps to fall from the table. One of them wasn't willing to wait, as you can see in the movie below:

When we had finished with lunch and put everything back in the car, we walked over towards the water, and found a nice observation overlook where we could look at the McCloud River. I made a movie of the river from here, and you can watch it with the player at left. At this point, the stream, which is coming from the northeast, goes through and over a very rocky area and then over a small waterfall into a very inviting pool. From there, the river continued on past the overlook and the picnic area and flowed on towards the southwest. From the observation area, Fred also took a closeup of the falls.

We followed the stairway down to the rocks themselves and walked right up to the waterfall. There were a lot of kids and some grownups here, all taking advantage of the cool stream, and some of them diving into the pool that had formed underneath the waterfall. I walked over as close as I could get to the waterfall to watch the water going over it and, at this point, stopped to make a movie of the waterfall that you can watch with the player at right.

This whole area was really interesting. For example, unlike many mountain streams we've seen, this one apparently flows over a solid shelf of rock, eroding it away into unusual shapes and bowls. This was different from other streams where the streambed is composed of boulders and rocks washed down the stream by the force of the water. Here, apparently, there was a solid stratum of lava or other rock that was being eaten away. There were some loose boulders, of course, but not so many as usual.

I walked along the rocky shelf near the stream, which was where Fred saw me and took this picture. At the overlook, there had been a little diagram showing the trail that followed the McCloud River upstream towards McCloud Falls, and so we headed off in that direction. As we left the swimming area, I looked back and photographed Fred alongside the McCloud River.

As we walked along the trail, it slowly ascended until it was on the hillside some fifty feet above the river, offering us very nice views of the McCloud River from above. From our vantage point on the trail, we could look a good ways upstream along the river. At a couple of points, the trail dipped down towards the river, and I would stop to make a movie of the river flowing by. You can watch a couple of those short movies with the players below:

We hiked for a bit over a mile and soon could hear the roar of falling water. Another few hundred feet and we came in sight of McCloud Falls. From the signs we had seen, these were actually the "middle falls" in a set of three along this stretch of the river. We'd already seen the small lower falls, and there was apparently another set further upstream, but they were again quite small (and so we thought this would be our furthest destination on this particular hike).

Here at the middle falls, there were maybe fifteen people on the rocks, in little inflatable boats in the pool, and even some who'd forded the stream and gotten over to a perch just underneath the falls. Fred got a good picture of all this activity as I went down to the water's edge to take some movies and pictures.

From a vantage point down by the water's edge and looking up and across at the falls, I made two movies. In the first one, I wanted to show the falls, the view across the river and downstream, and the high bluffs that were off to my right. I also wanted to get a movie that simply recorded the image and particularly the sound of the falls, without a lot of panning around. You can watch both these movies with the players below:

Around McCloud Falls The Sight and Sound of McCloud Falls

This was, as are most waterfalls, a very beautiful and restful place- particularly refreshing after our hot hike along the trail. We took a good many pictures here, and you may want to look at some more of them, so I have placed thumbnails for the best of them below; just click on the thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We learned from some of the folks at the waterfall that there was an overlook high up above the falls and a trail up to it, so when we left the falls, that's where we went. On the trail up to the overlook, we began to get very beautiful views of the falls through the trees. When we got to the top of the bluff, we found we could indeed get a wonderful perspective of McCloud Falls by looking down on them rather than up at them. This is not a common thing to happen to us when we are hiking along by waterfalls; usually, the trail just ends AT the falls and rarely continues on above them. Here are two of the best views of McCloud Falls that we took from the overlook- one normal view and one closeup.

While we were here, I also made a movie of McCloud Falls showing the view upstream and then down and over the falls. You can watch that movie with the player at left. And finally, just before we headed back, I took one last picture of the McCloud River looking downstream. Then we hiked back down to the falls themselves, paused there for a time, and then retraced our path back down the trail to the parking area and the lower falls.

Just before we got in the car and headed of to Mt. Shasta, I made one more movie of the lower falls, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

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Mt. Shasta, California

Leaving McCloud Falls and the state park, we retraced our route back through the town of McCloud and then west to Interstate 5. From there, we went up to the town of Mt. Shasta and exited into town. Our directions to the trailheads on Mt. Shasta needed some amplification, so we stopped in to a Ranger Station in town to verify them.

It was a long, winding route up to the parking area for the various trailheads up the mountain, but we eventually got there and prepared for our first hike to Panther Meadows.

The Panther Meadows Trail

The first hike we decided on was the Panther Meadows hike (since renamed, I have discovered, to the 'South Gate Meadows' hike, in case you want to look it up on the Internet). To get to the parking area for the hike, it was almost 12 miles from the center of the town of Mt. Shasta up the Everitt Memorial Highway. Once there, we found the trailhead with no problem. Even as we started out on the trail, we were treated to great views of Mt. Shasta off in the distance ahead of us.

We took a number of interesting movies on the way up, and I'd like to show some of them to you.

The trail climbed quickly away from the parking area, crossing an area that was partially covered in grass, but which, for the most part, was open ground. The trail at this point was well marked as we crossed a meadow area heading up towards the mountain, and it was here I took my first movie- one that you can watch with the player at right.

Towards the top of this large open area, we came upon a small stream that seemed to be running haphazardly through the open area where the trail was. It was quite a small stream- a rivulet basically- and it gave the appearance of perhaps having a different route from time to time. You can watch my movie of the small stream using the player at left.

Then, just before we entered the woods to leave this open area, we found the springs that seemed to be the source of the little stream, and I made a movie of that discovery that you can watch with the player at right.

Our trail continued through the woods and out into another meadow area, where the trail continued heading directly for Mt. Shasta. As we traversed this area, I took a picture of Fred alongside the trail. Alongside the trail, Fred found some pretty mountain flowers, and he stopped to also take a picture of me on the trail. The trail continued through this meadow area, through another stand of trees, and then out onto a higher meadow which opened up a beautiful vista to the south- with Mt. Lassen just barely visible far to the south. We were also getting better and better views of Mt. Shasta as we continued up the trail.

We had hiked over two miles by this time, and when we passed through another stand of trees we came out onto Panther Meadows. Panther Meadows had two really interesting features that we had the opportunity to explore. The first was a thing of beauty- the streams and springs that dotted the entire meadow. There were far too many little streams and little waterfalls for us to take pictures of them all; the two pictures I just included were representative of what we found all across the meadow. The second aspect of the meadow that was so intriguing was the continued sound made by all the little streams. There were paths that crisscrossed the meadow, and one was never more than a few feet from one of the little streams, and hence from the sound. Take a look at the movie I made of one of these pretty little streams by using the player at left.

The other really interesting aspect of Panther Meadows were the Indian artifacts that lined the edge of the meadow just inside the tree line. Here is an example of one of these indian totems- I can't think of a better name for them. Obviously, they are not very old, but the guide information we had said that they were periodically either repaired or laid out anew by some of the Native Americans that live around this area (none live on the mountain itself, apparently). We found two or three just in the small area we covered, so there must have been quite a few of them. Here is a picture that I took of Fred near these displays.

We spent perhaps an hour wandering around the meadow before we went back to the trail down from the meadow. As we descended back down the trail to the parking area, I made a movie walking behind Fred, so that you could see what the trail was like. You can watch that movie with the player at right.

The Shasta Slope Hike

From the trailhead parking area for Panther Meadows, the Everitt Memorial Highway continued up the southwest side of the mountain. As we left the Panther Meadows parking area, more excellent views of Mt. Shasta opened up. Partway up to the end of the road I stopped to take a movie panorama of the entire area, turning 360 degrees and looking in all directions. You can watch that movie with the left-hand player below. Finally, after another few miles of twisty mountain road, we came to the highest point on the road- the parking area for the Shasta Slopes hike- an altitude of 7800 feet. Fred took a movie to record our arrival, and you can watch his movie with the right hand player below.

A Panorama from the Mt. Shasta Road Parking Area for the Hike

The Shasta Slopes hike leads one up the rocky slope of the mountain, pretty much as high as you want to go. I think that we hiked maybe a mile or so up the slope, seeing lots of little springs and vistas of the mountain and the surrounding area.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

We took lots of pictures of this pretty amazing place, and I want to include a fair number of them here. So I have put them in a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

When we reached the farthest point that we ascended, I made a movie of Mt. Shasta and the surrounding area, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

Mt. Shasta was another fantastic place to visit; one of these days we might return and take one of the trails that leads pretty close to the summit, but, for today, we are going to head over to another local scenic place- Castle Crags State Park.

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Castle Crags State Park

To get to Castle Crags State Park, we returned to Interstate 5 and headed back south again to the marked exit for the State Park. When we turned off and got to the entrance, however, we found that the day-use hours for the park were close to ending and that we would not have time to do more than drive in and out- no hiking.

After about ten miles, we came to a bridge across the stream, and stopped to get out and walk down to the streambed.

What we found was a pretty little stream flowing from the northwest and going under the highway bridge; I made a movie of it to include here. Both Fred and I came down to explore, and, from my vantage point underneath the bridge, I filmed a movie of Fred walking along the stream which, according to the map, is Castle Creek. You can watch both these movies with the players below:

The Stream at Castle Crags SP Fred Walking Along Castle Creek

On the downstream side of the bridge, the creek formed a little waterfall, and I stopped to take a movie of the waterfall as well. (You can watch this movie with the player at left.) This was a neat little area, and well worth the drive to get here.

But now the day is ending, and it is time for us to head up the road to our stop for the night in Grants Pass, Oregon.

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Our Stop for the Night in Grants Pass

Getting to Grants Pass was easy; just a drive back to the Interstate and then north into Oregon, past Medford (where I had worked once a long time ago) and into Grants Pass. We made reservations on the way at a hotel there. We stopped in Medford to eat, choosing another of the Black Bear Diners that we'd tried a couple of days earlier.

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	July 23, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 7
	July 21, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 5
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