Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Summer Vacation Part II - Lake Shasta (cont.)

Other than camp and eat near-gourmet quality food (if I do say so myself) while at Lake Shasta, what else did we do? For each of the two full days there, we planned something different.

On our first full day in the Shasta area, we decided to visit Lake Shasta Caverns. After a brief boat ride across the Lake, and a shuttle ride up a twisting and turning path, we all delved into the natural caverns discovered above the McCloud arm of the lake.


The caverns were a good twenty degrees cooler than the outside temperature, which was quite welcome. The caves had some pretty amazing formations, which don't show up to well in the photos I took due to a distinct lack of good lighting. In total, we made out way up, down, and around 695 steps on our round trip explorations of the caverns.


No children were harmed in the taking of this picture:


The second full day found us traveling a bit North and then a bit east, to hike up and see the Middle McCloud falls.

The middle falls are around 100 ft. wide and 50 ft. tall, and quite breathtaking.

After snapping a few pictures, we made our way down to the Lower McCloud falls, and tempted fate by changing into bathing suits and braving the near pure snow-melt. I didn't have a thermometer with me, but I'd estimate the water temperature to be in the 40s - much colder than any ocean water I surf during the winter here in San Diego (with a full suit). The water was so cold that your feet felt a bit numb after a few minutes in the water. However, the weather was so beautiful that we braved the chilly temperatures and had a good time.


The next day we said our farewells to Lake Shasta, broke camp early in the morning, and continued on our journey heading further North.

(To be continued!)

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