Shasta or Dunsmuir Area Vacation (San Francisco, Redding: rental, hotels, vacation home)

[calif]

We want to vacation in the snow with kids. Where is the best place to stay up there and what are the best snow parks? We'd love to stay in a cabin or something, we may be bringing 4 kids with us.

[DMenscha]

Mt Shasta Visitors Guide - Mount Shasta, Siskiyou County looks like a decent place to start your search.

Have fun!

[calif]

Thank you for the info. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[notmeofficer]

I agree.. Mt Shasta hands down... the snow park is an easy drive towards McCloud.. lots of snow now.. the storms have been hitting fast and furious.. there are a number of B and Bs and resorts in Mt Shasta... and several neat things to see

Youll be flying into Redding most likely.. make sure you check arrivals.. weather is iffy right now.. make sure your rental has snow chains ..or buy a cheap set locally... otherwise you might get stopped for awhile if its storming ,, chp closes the 5 here during periods of bad weather.. usually north of Redding about 10 miles. PLEASE HEED MY ADVICE about chains right now.. if youre driving bring a set with you .. otherwise youll get stopped and get to spend your vacation in Motel 6 in Redding...

Dont even bother with Dunsmuir in the winter.. its a dead town.. caters to fly fishing and not snow stuff.. and its so small you can walk main street in 60 seconds.. Mt Shasta's choices are vastly superior

[calif]

I was looking at renting a house or a cabin, and there are several available in Dunsmuir. How far is Dunsmuir from the snow park? Do you recall the name of it? We are driving so we will buy some chains, I appreciate the advice! I'm nervous about driving in the snow. I know Dunsmuir is a small town, with one pizza joint and a little cafe, but we don't care too much about that, I just don't want to have to drive more than 20 minutes to play in the snow.

[Woof]

Dunsmuir is an unpleasant place with ignorant hillbillies who may follow you around to see what you're up to, as they did to me.

Mt Shasta City is much nicer, has more cabins, motels, hotels, and a KOA campground. It's also closer to snow playgrounds.

[calif]

thank you woof for your view on Dunsmuir, I've been there, know what it is like and actually enjoy small quirky towns and try to blend with the locals.

We've decided to stay in Shasta City however and found a great place, for an even better price.

[NorCalMan]

Hope you have't already gone on your trip. I used to live in Mt. Shasta. As a place to visit in the summer I think it's a great place as there's lots of stuff to do (cycling, fishing, boating, golfing, the beach). The winter is another story. The snow park (notice how I didn't say resort) is just terrible, especially on the weekends when the locusts from the lowlands come up to waste their money. Putting it mildly, I can walk up hill faster than the lifts can carry you. And with all the punk, puke hillbilly snowboarders from the area and the tweekers from Redding you run the risk of losing a limb, or your child in an accident. (Can you guess how the hospital stays in business during the winter?) The tubing/sledding hill is a joke too. It's usually a sheet of ice. On a busy weekend it wasn't uncommon to see 20 people (usually teens and fat people) in the hospital with varying levels of sprains, contusions and fractures. I lost count of how many times a Life-Flight helicopter had to come to town and take one of those weekenders to Medford or Redding to get life saving brain injury treatment.
The hotels and motels are laughable. Most are right across the street from the very loud train tracks or a stones throw from I-5, but they never mention that in their brochures. If you and your family are going to be looking for something to do at night while your there you can either go to the movie theater (3 screens) or you can go to a restaurant. Oh wait, there is that bar in Weed that's awful. Oh and there's the Walmart in Yreka that's 30 minutes away.
As for the restaurants. Most are crap and over priced. The two places we ate at regularly though was the Billy Goats Tavern and the restaurant at the golf course.
One of the other posters hit the nail on the head about Dunsmuir. And if you think you're going to mingle with locals then you're just plain naive...unless you do meth...seriously. Even main street Mt.Shasta will take no more than two hours to walk through.

Understand one thing about Siskiyou County, it's where people often go to drop out of life. Druggies, hippies, and the non-educated move there for a reason: the county is so vast you can get away with almost anything. There are professionals there but by and large most move away (like we did) because the vibe/environment, even for a mountain town is just plain bad.

Otherwise, enjoy your vacation.

Originally Posted by calif

We want to vacation in the snow with kids. Where is the best place to stay up there and what are the best snow parks? We'd love to stay in a cabin or something, we may be bringing 4 kids with us.

[Benchracer]

Guess I just don't follow the crowd. I'm in what would be considered a professional career and moved TO Dunsmuir to improve my quality of life. I'm sorry that a couple of people on this forum have had such issues with the locals - and I'm not denying that some of the locals can be difficult. I vacationed here regularly for eight years prior to making Dunsmuir my home, and by mingling with the locals over the years I had a fairly broad base of friends welcome me when I finally made the move.

I don't ski, so I have no first hand knowledge of what Mt. Shasta Ski Park is like, but I've never heard anyone denigrate it to the extent that NorCalMan has. There was a report for at least a part of this ski season saying that Mt. Shasta Ski Park had the highest snow pack of any facility in the country. Doesn't sound too bad to me.

Calif, you've probably already made your ski trip and so I hope you had a grand time. I'm biased, living in Dunsmuir and owning a vacation rental property here, but I just think Dunsmuir's an overall better place to stay. For skiing, Mt. Shasta and McCloud are a bit closer to the ski park, but for all other activities, I think Dunsmuir wins it hands down. The slightly lower elevation provides more variety of trees, we've got the Upper Sac River running through town, better restaurants, better nightlife and the people are friendlier. Despite stories to the contrary from Woof and NorCalMan, I had never had any trouble with the locals when I was a visitor (now that I'm a resident, my political views have stirred some controversy, but that's another story).

Since moving here, I've even been known to mingle with visitors AND I don't do meth. I won't deny a meth problem here. But there's a meth problem in L.A. and San Francisco and Mt. Shasta and Provo, Utah and Canal Winchester, Ohio. I'm betting most visitors here wouldn't notice it unless they're hanging out at our down-and-out-bar. My vacation property is in a quiet neighborhood. In fact, one of my friends in Dunsmuir doesn't even have a lock on her front door - really.

Sure, Dunsmuir's funky, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[McCloud Vacation Home]

We have a new vacation home in McCloud and McCloud is the closest you can get to the Mt. Shasta Ski Park. check our our web site at McCloud Vacation Home. We've spent the last 5 years remodeling this house and its one of if not the nicest vacation homes in McCloud. Call me if you have questions, 415-577-5198