Hike Mt. Shasta

Alpenglow, summer snow and wildflowers blanket Mount Shasta.

We have now completed the year of our Lord 2024’s orbit around the sun. It has been a very odd year here at the Hike Mt Shasta homestead. It was a year of change in many, many ways, much of it with loss. Yet blessings still abound and we are grateful that the path lying before us is the such, as many others would be the poorer options. Like the previous year, 2024 kept me busy enough that I did not get out like I desire. Even my work out at Truchas Ridge suffered from the weight of responsibility. Despite the changes and obligations, there were some memorable highlights this year. I managed to take my son’s boy scout troop down to Yosemite for 4 days and my family out to eastern Oregon and Idaho for a week as well as Yosemite in the fall. I even managed a solo trip into the Oregon Cascades. Now that I come to think about it, it was actually a pretty full year, despite all the “real life” that had to get done.

Enough of me yapping. On to the retrospective!

January:

The year started off with a bang, with some pretty impressive lenticular formations in the midst of the storms that continually pelted the Northstate. As always, when the precipitation gets to be such and the pools in the Shasta Valley fill up, I am too weak to resist the temptation for reflections. Such has been the case at the end of 2024 as well. I am making a resolution to force myself to branch out…

February:

February was icy. Much fell from the sky and then it froze. Still, the river flowed despite the cold and Mount Shasta stood icy sentinel, the frozen flanks catching the beautiful alpenglow…when the clouds cleared enough to actually see the mountain.

March:

Things started to get busy in March. I did not get out often. When I did, it was usually in pursuit of fleeting lenticulars. Even this endeavor was frequently stymied. I only got a few of note and even these were a bit disappointing. However, it is always good to get out, so even for these I was thankful.

April:

This was the roughest month in many ways. I hardly got out at all. I did get the boy scouts to Yosemite however so there was some sense of accomplishment. Even then, responsibility took first position and didn’t get any images from that trip. I was too busy wrangling. I essentially got no images of Mount Shasta the entire month. On the evening of the last day, I told my wife I had to go out at sunset, just to get something, whatever it might be. It wasn’t a particularly good sunset, but I got it.

May:

Things started to get interesting in May. The sun decided to have some pretty big solar flares that managed to drag the aurora borealis all the way down to Mount Shasta. Visible to the naked eye, a slightly longer exposure yielded some pretty extraordinary color in the sky. At the same time, the two years of copious precipitation yielded a super bloom in the Shasta Valley that, though beautiful, was pretty inconvenient. I still haven’t cut all the roads clear.

June:

June brought more blooming in the Shasta Valley. Driving through these kinds of conditions, hiking through the flowers and gazing up at the snowy mountain was delightful. Places that often seem dreary were anything but! The winter snow still clung to Mount Shasta and it was a white mountain throughout the month.

July:

Smoke arrived in July and the heat got turned up and it was hot. Extra hot. The snow melted on Mount Shasta in earnest. This was a month of work, with a variety of obligations just keeping me out of the game. However, when a surprising summer lenticular appeared, it got my attention for the whole day. The mountain even burped out another mudflow down Cascade Gulch. These kinds of things don’t happy frequently this time of year, so it was a welcome intrusion into the summer meteorological doldrums. It was also a sign of interesting weather to come.

In the midst of all the business, I did manage to take my family up to my brother’s home in Idaho. On the way we camped at Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon and reveled in the fantastic beauty of that incredible landscape. Our planned trip to the Sawtooths was nixed by a fire near Redfish Lake and our campground was turned into a staging area. We quickly shifted gears and went up to Joseph, Oregon and enjoyed a short stay at Wallowa Lake. That turned out to be a good move for a variety of reasons, even though the Wallowas are a backpacker’s mountain range, our quick taste at once satisfying but left us hungry for more.

August:

In an unusual turn of events, August turned out to be one of the prettiest months of the year in Mount Shasta. Typically a month frequently choked with smoke and heat, this year it turned out to have a few snow storms pass through. The unusual, out-of-season snow complimented the riotous eruption of wildflowers that was the customary highlight at the higher elevations. The already beautiful wildflower displays were elevated orders of magnitude by the snow. It was an unusual and memorable combination.

Circumstances aligned for me to be able to get away solo for a few days. I headed up into the Oregon Cascades, ultimately reaching just south of Mount Adams in Washington. Along the way, I explored an isolated section of the Deschutes River’s canyon (that had a phenomenal view of the Three Sisters) and marveled at some great waterfalls on Mount Hood. The trip ultimately proved bittersweet but it was good nonetheless.

September:

The wet weather continued into September and there were some pretty spectacular storms, particularly out over the Shasta Valley. Still, by this time the mountain had lost most of its winter snow and the summer snow, though surprisingly copious, was fleeting in the higher temperatures. Though with great light and a reflection, who needs snow to make things look beautiful?

October:

The previous two months’ unusually wet weather continued into October, and provided numerous great sunrises and sunsets. The frustrating part of it was that in the mornings, these now coincided with delivery time at school. I could often stop and get a good shot on the way as there is no shortage of great views between my house and their school but no infrequently was the timing just a bit off for the best light. I did make them late once though, when the conditions were too good to pass up!

My family and I made it back to Yosemite yet again. We had some rain but also some beautiful autumn weather. Parts of the valley (particularly the western half) had excellent fall color, as did high country areas like Illilouette Creek. Yosemite is simply the best. I am grateful my kids have not missed a year without visiting it thus far.

November:

November was a good month, with the mountain being restored to its white condition on a seasonally permanent basis. Some good lenticulars and a lot of family made it a month that sailed by faster than it should have. The most notable event was the earliest large storm I can remember in Mount Shasta. Just two weeks into the month, we had 27 inches of snow at my house. Thankfully the boy scouts had harvested our Christmas trees the weekend before. The heavy snow blocking the high country and the late position of Thanksgiving in the month meant we had a ready market for trees and we sold out in 2 days and 2.5 hours, a record.

December:

The year came to a close beautifully. More snow, more lenticulars, more activity and more family. A quick trip down to Sonoma County to see family, even family that lives in Argentina broke things up a bit and made Christmas a bit busier than normal but it was a good Christmas nonetheless. It was a good year too…

May the Lord bless as we careen into what may be a tumultuous and interesting 2025!