Mt. Eddy/Deadfall Lake Hike in Mt. Shasta Forest

Towards the end of our trip both Anil and I felt that we had been spending too much time in a car and not enough time hiking. Therefore, we decided to change our plans for the last day and instead of going to Lava Beds National Monument we went to Mt. Shasta Forest. There we wanted to go on a 10-mile long hike to the top of Mt. Eddy.

Our plan partially failed, as we only managed to go on a 6-mile hike due to unforeseeable amounts of snow that were still present at the higher elevations. In fact, we even had some trouble getting to the hike’s trailhead, as the last 3 km of the road leading to it were still partially covered by snow. At a certain moment a mountain of snow appeared in front of us, completely blocking the road and forcing us to park our car in front of it and cross it by foot.

Luckily, the trail was not as completely covered by snow as the road was, so we did not have trouble finding our way to Dead Leaf Lakes. There, however, we decided to abort our initial plan of climbing Mt Eddy, as because of the snow we were unable to find the trail anymore. Still, it was a very pretty hike. And if anything, the snow made it probably even prettier. The lakes were truly beautiful and I would strongly recommend this hike to anybody, no matter if you will make it all the way to the top of Mt. Eddy or just go to the lakes. I’m also determined to do this hike again later in the season, when there is less snow.


A snow-covered road:

Anil jumping over a seasonal creek formed by melting snow:

Occasionally, we had to struggle a bit to cross a snow patch blocking the trail:

Views from the trail:

Deadfall Lakes

Mt. Shasta

As soon as we crossed the northern border of California, a spectacular sight of Mount Shasta appeared in front of us. Both Anil and I were truly amazed and deeply touched by the beauty of the mountain, and its sight made us feel happy to be back in our home state, just a few hours away from home. Even though we have seen many amazing places in our lives, we both agree that California is the most beautiful place of them all. Mount Shasta was a small reminder of that.

At 14,179 feet (4,322 m) Mount Shasta ("White Mountain") is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California. What makes it more spectacular than other mountains of a similar height, is that it stands alone and rises abruptly nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the surrounding terrain. If it was connected to other mountains, I do not think it would look quite as impressive as it does by itself.

Mount Shasta is a dormant volcano, which is predicted to erupt within the next several hundred years ☺ It is difficult to believe that, looking at its snow-covered peaks: