WATERFALLS
AND STEALTH CAMPING
From Butte Lake we drove north on Highway 89. We had followed that same highway from Lake Tahoe,
and it would take us all the way to the Mount Shasta area. That one certainly passes some amazing
places! First on our agenda for the day
was Burney Falls. Burney Falls is one of
the most spectacular waterfalls in California.
It is located in McArthur ~ Burney Falls Memorial State Park. We paid the $10 entrance fee and found a
semi-shady spot in a large, busy parking lot.
The park was incredibly busy for a Monday afternoon.
We
hiked to an overlook of the falls first.
The view was breathtaking. Burney
Falls is 129’ high, but its 250’ width is more
remarkable. Part of the waterfall is
formed by springs in the sides of the cliff.
In addition to the water rushing over the brink, there are many smaller
streams starting all along the wall.
We
followed a paved path down to the base of the falls. This area was crowded with people, many of
them Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers.
The trail passes through the park, and most of the thru-hikers looked beaten
down from the heat. We had expected to
swim in the pool at the base of the falls, but water levels were high, and the
pool was far too turbulent to be safe.
Still, the profuse spray from the waterfall was refreshing.
It
was a bright, sunny day, and photography was pretty hopeless with the poor
light and spray. I tried anyway, with
predictable results. I did bushwhack
down to the creek a short distance downstream.
This provided a much better composition without spray. Unfortunately, the light was still
terrible. There were more small
waterfalls from springs in the opposite cliff wall. Those were in the shade, so I was able to get
some decent photos of them.
After
a couple of hours there we hit the road again.
On the way out we drove over a lake, passing the famous railroad trestle
from the movie “Stand By Me”. We drove on towards the town of McCloud, but
we stopped to check out three waterfalls on the McCloud River along the
way. The upper waterfall is in a narrow
canyon, and the only view was from an overlook on the rim. We drove from there to the next waterfall. The middle waterfall was my favorite. There is a good view from the rim of the
canyon, but a good trail descends to the base on switchbacks. Christy decided to skip it, but I hiked down
there. At the base, I found a couple of
guys swimming and climbing on the falls.
Photography was still pretty hopeless, although a rainbow added some
beauty.
From
there, we drove down to the lower falls.
We encountered several deer in the parking lot, including a spotted fawn. The lower waterfall is small but neat, as it
is surrounded by rock ledges. My
information indicated that there was a great swimming hole here. However, getting into it looked
difficult. I think we could have
scrambled down to the creek a bit downstream and worked our way back up, but it
would’ve been challenging. We decided to
skip it.
We
considered staying at one of the nearby campgrounds, mostly because I wanted to
return in the evening when the light would be better for photos. However, both campgrounds were full. Instead, we decided to stick with our
original plan. We stopped in the town of
McCloud for a few groceries before driving up to Castle Lake. There is a small campground downstream from
Castle Lake, but it was also full. There
is an informal overflow camping area nearby, but it didn’t look very nice. It was basically a gravel parking area with
some fire rings. We could’ve tented
there, but there weren’t any trees suitable for hammocks. We decided to drive up to Castle Lake and check
that area out.
Back
at the main road we caught a nice view of Mount Shasta. I thought there might be some alpenglow, but
I think we were too far south to catch it.
On the way in, we passed signs for the Castle Lake Day Use Area. That sort of implies that camping isn’t
allowed, but nothing specifically said that.
There were quite a few cars in the parking area, but we only saw a few
fishermen around the lake. Most of the
other cars probably belonged to people that had backpacked a mile over to Heart
Lake. That trail actually passes through
undeveloped private property, but that didn’t appear to be stopping
anyone. I had originally planned to hike
over to Heart Lake for sunset, but we were behind schedule and I’d missed
it.
We
made dinner at the picnic area on the lakeshore. This was challenging due to high winds. I eventually had to take the stove back up to
the parking area to get out of the wind.
After eating, we couldn’t think of a good reason to leave. There wasn’t anyone around, and there wasn’t
anything to stop us from camping on the lakeshore. We slept in the hammocks that night, rocked
by the gusting winds coming off the lake.
Back to California
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