Where to vacation around Mt. Shasta/Lake Shasta (San Francisco, Redding: rental, hotel)

[Travelin2012]

Hello.....I am a New Englander living in LA county. I am planning to travel with teenage son this summer to Shasta Lake and around. Never been in this area. I was just reading a blog about the town of Dunsmuir....looking to stay in rental cabins on the Sac. river. To the point....where is the BEST area to stay for real outdoors feel...plenty of forested area, never Sac. river or Lake. I just read that Lake Shasta is man made (that seems strange, it does not look like it)....but read that there are no actual beaches??? What about Lake Shastina, Sishiyou Lake or Trinity Lake. I know nothing of this area..........looking for something close to New Hampshire or Maine on the west coast....without driving completely to Oregon. Thank you for any info
P.S. Everything in SoCal is toooo brown and dry for my taste and Yosemite is probably tooooo crowded.

[humboldtrat]

Mount Lassen National Park www.davestravelcorner.com/articles/mtlassen And http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/n...canic.all.html

[wburg]

Lake Shasta is a reservoir created by Shasta Dam, which provides flood control, water reservoir, and electrical power. Because the lake was created in a very mountainous area, the sides of the lake tend to be steep and rocky, as the water filled into areas that were previously canyons through the mountainside. The water level also tends to vary greatly, depending on how wet things have been: we have seen a couple of near-drought years, so the water level on Lake Shasta is low. The result looks a bit like the "ring around the bathtub" in a tub made entirely of dirt.

However, it should be mentioned that the inland mountains get pretty brown and dry, and very, very hot (temperatures around Redding and Red Bluff hit 100-110 degrees regularly in the summers.) If you want someplace greener and a bit cooler in the summers, I would recommend Humboldt or Mendocino County. I have never been to New England, but if you're looking for a place with big craggy mountains, primeval forests with the most enormous trees in the world, a handful of small towns best known for Victorian architecture and large numbers of hippies, and uncrowded beaches where beachwear is typically boots and a warm coat, use your username as your guide and check out the northcoast.

[Travelin2012]

I know that the inland valley gets very hot..so, there is no swimming in lake Shasta?? What about Shastina or Trinity Lake?? What about Sac. river area around Dunsmuir?? I was thinking of going to the Redwoods for the second week of the vacation. Looking for a place with a lot of activities for my 14 yr old son, he loves to fish.....

[Travelin2012]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

Mount Lassen National Park www.davestravelcorner.com/articles/mtlassen And www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.lassen-volcanic.all.html

Thank you for the info.....Mt. Lassen looks real spooky, never realized that lava look. Do you know anything of the Shasta area??

[volleyballer]

Originally Posted by Travelin2012

Hello.....I am a New Englander living in LA county. I am planning to travel with teenage son this summer to Shasta Lake and around. Never been in this area. I was just reading a blog about the town of Dunsmuir....looking to stay in rental cabins on the Sac. river. To the point....where is the BEST area to stay for real outdoors feel...plenty of forested area, never Sac. river or Lake. I just read that Lake Shasta is man made (that seems strange, it does not look like it)....but read that there are no actual beaches??? What about Lake Shastina, Sishiyou Lake or Trinity Lake. I know nothing of this area..........looking for something close to New Hampshire or Maine on the west coast....without driving completely to Oregon. Thank you for any info
P.S. Everything in SoCal is toooo brown and dry for my taste and Yosemite is probably tooooo crowded.

Mt. Shasta area is awesome. But I'm biased because I was born and raised there. There are plenty of things to do in Mt. Shasta, and even at Shasta Lake. Shasta Lake doesn't really have a beach area, but if you can afford to rent a houseboat, it is real fun.

Lake Siskiyou, in Mt. Shasta, does have a beach area. There is also a campground there so you can camp, and then walk to the beach. If you drive up the road more from Lake Siskiyou, the only road, you'll see awesome cliffs if you want to try rock climbing, plus there are many other lakes to try fishing, hiking, biking around or paddle boating. There is Castle Lake, and many other smaller lakes off from Castle Lake. There is Gumboot lake, I just went camping there last summer, and it was so relaxing.

I don't know if you want to camp or sleep in a hotel, but if you camp be very familiar with the fire laws. We had to camp in a "designated" campsite in order to have a campfire. I know more than plenty of off the beaten path places to camp for free, but CA wasn't letting anyone with or without fire permits have a campfire.

In Dunsmuir, there is a campsite along the Sac River. It is wonderful to go tubing down in the summer. Also off of I 5 is Castle Craigs near Dunsmuir. It's a great, yet challenging day hike, and it has amazing views of the forests and Mt. Shatsta. If you want more hiking try hiking around Castle Lake, Mt. Shasta, or Black Butte (near Weed). Dunsmuir has some amazingly beautiful water falls, Moss Brae Falls, where you have to walk about a mile along some train tracks to get there. Ask anyone in Dunsmuir, and they'll direct you to the right place.

There's also Mc Cloud which has a river, 2 smaller waterfalls, great for river rafting, and a very beautiful, emerald green lake. There is also Hearst Castle over there.

Obviously I recommend staying in the Mt. Shasta area, and in the summer, it's about 10 degrees cooler than Redding and Shasta Lake. I'm envious of your future trip. And going to see the redwoods is a huge recommendation.

Let me know if you want any other info.

[Travelin2012]

Thank you for so much info; that is what I like about this board....you can get info from people who live in the area and are really familiar. I was not going to camp out because I am taking my mom and she is a senior citizen. I have been looking at small cabins to rent around Dunsmuir that are right on the Sac. river. Glad to have found out about Lake Siskiyou (sp?)...especially if it gets hot...need a place to get into water.

[wburg]

Yeah, people swim in Shasta Lake, they just don't have "beaches" in the sense of permanent bars of sand to sit on, because the water level of the lake is so variable.

If you're a railfan, Dunsmuir has a pretty cool old turntable and a "Railroad Days" event in June. Also, the McCloud River Railway has a "Shasta Sunset Dinner Train" that looks pretty neat: Shasta Sunset Dinner Train .

There are some other interesting historic sites, like the town of Shasta a couple miles west of Redding on Highway 299, and a lot of fascinating little towns. The feel is probably very different from New England, as the Pacific Northwest is kind of a world of its own, but definitely worth a visit.

[Travelin2012]

Originally Posted by wburg

Yeah, people swim in Shasta Lake, they just don't have "beaches" in the sense of permanent bars of sand to sit on, because the water level of the lake is so variable.

If you're a railfan, Dunsmuir has a pretty cool old turntable and a "Railroad Days" event in June. Also, the McCloud River Railway has a "Shasta Sunset Dinner Train" that looks pretty neat: Shasta Sunset Dinner Train .

There are some other interesting historic sites, like the town of Shasta a couple miles west of Redding on Highway 299, and a lot of fascinating little towns. The feel is probably very different from New England, as the Pacific Northwest is kind of a world of its own, but definitely worth a visit.

Thank you again.....interesting about the hippies...in the back roads of Maine and NH I never saw this, just good ole folks, families, yuppies sometimes and even bikers, but never hippies unless I missed something. Years ago I used to hear that San Francisco and Boston were sister cities....nothing could be further from the truth, oh well. I will check out that dinner train sounds great.

[volleyballer]

Originally Posted by Travelin2012

Thank you again.....interesting about the hippies...in the back roads of Maine and NH I never saw this, just good ole folks, families, yuppies sometimes and even bikers, but never hippies unless I missed something. Years ago I used to hear that San Francisco and Boston were sister cities....nothing could be further from the truth, oh well. I will check out that dinner train sounds great.

Oh, you'll see your share of hippies in Mt. Shasta during the summer for sure. I've got great hippie stories growing up there. You might even see them dancing naked up at Toad lake, one of the lakes near Castle Lake. People from all over the world come worship the mountain in the summer. Good times!