Mount Shasta 2025 – A Year In Images

Posted by bubbasuess on January 6, 2026
Posted in: Hiking, Mount Shasta. 1 Comment

December 2025 produced some awesome lenticular clouds.

We have now completed the year of our Lord 2025’s orbit around the sun. It has been a very busy year here at the Hike Mt Shasta homestead. It was another strange year, with an odd mix of work, volunteering and some personal endeavors thrown in for good measure. Our business has grown immensely and demanded a lot more of my time this year. Concurrently, my involvement with my kids’ school has also grown, and the investment of time and effort has produced some good fruit. This has meant that I have had far less time than years past to get out on the trail (or off the trail, is it tends to be these days). Even my work at Truchas Ridge has suffered and things have ground to a halt there, though this has been more a product of an…outside intrusion than my own prioritization of my goals there. Still, I have been able to get out here and there and my quest to document Mount Shasta in all conditions continues.

In the midst of the busyness it is hard to believe that I have continued to post at least one post a month on this site, missing only a handful of months over the last 13 years. Sometimes I just get a bug and post a lot, sometimes it is a struggle just to force myself to sit and write something, anything. I feel like I have a few big things left to write about. Maybe I can force myself to tackle them in the coming year.

Regardless, blessings abound in the midst of the craziness and I am grateful for that.

Enough of me yapping. On to the retrospective:

In 2025 January kicked off to a wet start. No surprise, given the new year starts in winter, but then I have seen waterless winters that edged up into the 60’s. This was not that. Cold with some snow and rain. Perhaps somewhat unusual, the rain was particularly copious in the Shasta Valley. Atypical for the high desert terrain, it produced great reflecting pools, one of my favorite benefits of the winter season. However, the storms were…uneventful, at least in terms of unusual or beautiful conditions. There was only one notable lenticular and not much in terms of sunrises and sunsets. Still, that is nitpicking. The most boring of conditions are still exceptional around Mount Shasta.

February was most memorable for the massive snow storm that hit the region. While a large and powerful storm, such things are not unusual around Mount Shasta. What was unusual was the scale of the storm – particularly the snowfall – that hit the Shasta Valley. At Truchas Ridge, there was an incredible 14-16 inches of snow. These conditions were consistent all over the valley. Indeed, this was a generational amount of snow in the desert land. Determined to capture images of this unique event, I climbed out to Echo Point for a sunset. I had anticipated 6 inches at the most. I should have brought snowshoes for what I found there. I made it up to the point and got some of the most memorable images of Mount Shasta from that epic vista. I will never forget this one.

The winter continued well into March, leaving layers of fresh, crispy snow on the mountain. It felt like the month was snowed in with work, as I hardly got out at all. The only real notable trip was to Pecos Point on Truchas Ridge with the family. It is shocking how something that was once a weekly or more event was now noteworthy because of how infrequent I was able to get out.

The loaded schedule continued into April. I was out not at all. The only pictures of Mount Shasta I took the entire month was of the rising moon over the mountain, which produced a moon shadow. Other than that, I felt disconnected from my camera and Mount Shasta.

Things seemed to turn in May. The weather was getting more interesting and my schedule loosened up a bit. It also started inauspiciously. A fire flared up on Spring Hill, burning the western flank of the small peak. It was visible from all over. It seemed like a dangerous harbinger to come for the summer. Despite the fire, other elements of spring augured well for the summer. In particular, the bloom in the Shasta Valley was great, with yellow flowers popping up everywhere. The green hills, copious flowers and flowing creeks make spring in the valley a paradise.

As spring faded into summer, June brought the beginning of a trend that would stretch through the summer. In particular, the summer was a wet one, with one thunderstorm after another rumbling through. This meant mighty clouds and interesting light and rainbows. It also meant the danger for fires was greater from the lightning strikes but the storms always seemed to bring plenty of rain and now conflagrations appeared. We held our breath anyway.

July continued the pattern established in June. Thunderstorms were the order of the month and there was plenty of lightning and rainbows. As if such things can really be had in excess. They are beautiful and awe-inspiring and when they occur around Mount Shasta, it is difficult to top. July was an unusually wet summer month and the temperatures were low as well. Summer was shaping up nicely!

As the summer wore on into August, so did the thunderstorms continue. There was a little less rain and fewer rainbows but there was still some incredible cloud formations and some phenomenal lighting. The sunsets were awesome, even as fresh snow was still being deposited on Mount Shasta. This was, in fact, the coolest summer we have had in Mount Shasta in some time.

It was in September that fire finally returned to threaten the Mount Shasta area. Not from lightning but from wind and a careless camper. The fire burned in the Castle Creek drainage, near the Castle Crags. Though it flared up fast, driven by powerful winds, resources were thrown at it quickly and it was stopped in its tracks. Thankfully the Crags themselves were spared.

Autumn erupted in October and this year brought some great fall color. Though the many of the aspen trees didn’t do much, the oaks were fantastic, turning a vivid gold. which always offers a magnificent contrast to Mount Shasta, especially as the mountain is blanketed with fresh snow. The lower angle of the light just seems to make everything glow in October. It is my favorite month.

November brought thick fog to the Shasta Valley, fog that continually tried to creep up toward the base of Mount Shasta. Around the mountain, the weather proved to be very interesting with beautiful cloud formations highlighting the great fall light. This culminated, at the end of the month, with a fantastic lenticular, the first of what has proven to be a consistent stream of the magnificent lens-like clouds.

The run of awesome clouds and fog continued into December. This included one of the most stupendous lenticular formations to grace Mount Shasta in quite a while. It was not alone either, as other events formed around the mountain throughout the month. Dense fog also reigned in the valley, filling the basin like a vast, slow-motion sea. While at times oppressive, the edges of the fog brought some great beauty. Snow finally came too, falling on Christmas Day. It was a good month and a good end to a hard year but beautiful year. Thank the Lord and may His blessings abound in 2026!

Mount Shasta On Either Side Of Christmas

Posted by bubbasuess on December 27, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunrise, sunset. Leave a comment

I’ll try to keep this one brief. Thus far, it has been a snowless winter season. It’s not that there has been no precipitation, it has in fact had a decent amount of rain, but there hasn’t been a stitch of snow. Everyone has indeed been dreaming of a white Christmas. Thankfully, storms came through the Mount Shasta area before, on and after Christmas. Much of it fell as rain but around my house, we ended up with 6 inches of snow. Oddly enough, though Mount Shasta was completely enveloped in the storm on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas (Boxing Day?) I could see the mountain through the storm. This, despite it raining and snowing hard at my house. Leave it to Mount Shasta’s rainshadow over the Shasta Valley to continue to provide clarity when all else is obscured.

On days before Christmas Eve, it had been raining hard over the valley but by the end of the day itself, it cleared up enough to see the mountain. Even better, all the precipitation had finally restored the pools that lie scattered around the valley, returning the possibility of reflections of Mount Shasta from the north. On Christmas Eve it was too windy for a good reflection, but the return of the possibility was like a little pre-Christmas stocking stuffer.

I may be the only one who enjoys the time lapse views of Mount Shasta but I can’t get enough of the way the conditions change. This particular time lapse from Christmas Eve was great. It showed the storm and some interesting clouds but by the end of the day it was sunny. However, the storm that was dropping copious amounts of rain (and soon snow as well) at my house was visible, hanging low to the ground. It seemed like Mount Shasta was like a giant rampart, holding the storm back. It is a striking answer to the question of why the Shasta Valley is a desert.

 

The morning after Christmas it was snowing at my house (it would ultimately leave 6 inches) but once again, it was clear over the valley. While the kids slept, I headed up again, to see what I could see. It was extremely windy and the storm raged to the south. The storm was ferocious enough to envelop Mount Shasta almost completely but the mountain’s profile was still discernable, if only barely. This time, oddly enough, it had a lenticular on it. It was almost indistinguishable from the storm itself, but the layered edges and dome were apparent. Oh yeah, the sunrise was pretty awesome too.

With the storm finally ended, I headed out for one more sunrise, now two days after Christmas. Sun lit snow banners, snow covered trees catching the sunrise light and glowing clouds reflecting in valley pools were all abundant. Winter is finally here. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Adrift In An Ocean Of Fog

Posted by bubbasuess on December 20, 2025
Posted in: Desert, Echo Point, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, sunrise, sunset, Truchas Ridge. Tagged: . 1 Comment

Mount Shasta, partially obscured by fog.

December most certainly has had the most interesting weather of the last several months in Mount Shasta. We have gone from beautiful clouds and epic lenticulars to a more mundane but intensely beautiful set of conditions: deep fog. The pea soup, interesting at first, became suffocating after a while. Not seeing more than 100 feet away and it never burning off got old fast. If it was colder and allowed the hoarfrost to develop like it did during the epic fogathon of December 2022 it would have been far more interesting. We were not so fortunate and thus left with the dreary pall. The fog was settled in the lowlands, particularly in the Shasta Valley, north of Mount Shasta. However, the it never pushed its way up toward the base of Black Butte so Mount Shasta was spared the gloom.

While dreary from the inside, it was fascinatingly beautiful from above:

 

I found captivating the manner in which the fog seemed to follow some kind of tidal action, ebbing and flowing back and forth across the valley (also check out Mount Shasta’s shadow cast on the foggy canvas!). At times the hills in the center of the Shasta Valley would emerge from the vapor while at other times it was overpowering, submerging them in the ubiquitous mist. The fact that the fog lapped at the edges of the higher terrain afforded the opportunity to find the fringes of the fog and to try to capture images of the fog, light and mountains all interacting together.

The Owls Head, the tallest of the Shasta Valley peaks, peeks through the fog while Black Mountain and Pilot Rock (in Oregon) loom in the distance.

Mount McLoughlin, southern Oregon’s tallest mountain, rises beyond Bogus Mountain and Table Rock.

I went out at sunset top try to capture the alpenglow on Mountain Shasta through the mist. While I waited for the sun to set, I was able to capture some compelling images of the valley filled with fog. Without the speed of the time lapse, the respiratory nature of the fog’s movement was not discernable. What was though, was the solitary summit of the Owls Head, the only peak in the entire Shasta Valley that was coming through the fog. It’s striking isolation placed it in the company of taller peaks like Black Mountain, Paradise Craggy and Oregon’s Pilot Rock. Not the kind of company a valley hill normally keeps.

Frustratingly, right as the alpenglow intensified on Mount Shasta, the fog dissipated where I was. All the effort of finding a view of the mountain through the mist was for naught. I was left with a hazy sunset, but not much magic in the way of fog. It was fun even if it yielded nothing.

I went out the next morning and found the fog far more stratified that it had been the day before. There were several distinct layers of different consistencies. The mist was also pushing further to the south than it had as well, almost all the way to the pass at Black Butte. It was the furthest south the fog would penetrate but it set up fascinating conditions out over the Shasta Valley.

The valley was absolutely submerged in fog. The number of layers and the light of the morning sun made for an entertaining spectacle, all while highlighting some landmarks that often don’t get noticed when the Shasta Valley’s full geography is visible. In particular, Duzel Rock and Boulder Peak, the highpoint of the Marble Mountains were quite prominent.

I finally found a good spot at the edge of the fog from which to observe Mount Shasta. This time I had to settle for glowing fog rather than alpenglow on the mountain, as it was the wrong time of day. Still, watching the tendrils of fog sail past while the mountain remained motionless was lovely. Mission accomplished.

Evening brought more of the same. The fog was thick and closing in. I captured a few shots of evening light but the view was soon lost as the fog thickened as the sun set. It was the opposite problem of the night before!

The next day brought a surprise lenticular. It did not show up until the afternoon but it was a solid formation that had many nice layers in the stack. It was similar to the ones that had formed the week prior. I was wanting to catch it midday, when its form was nice and crisp, but I was still selling Christmas trees. I headed out in the evening once the lot closed and was able to catch it at sunset. It wasn’t nearly as interesting by this point, but still a fined feature in the sky over Mount Shasta. This turned out to be the final harbinger of the change in weather patterns. The unseasonably warm December now gave way to wet weather. It was time, as we needed the surge in precipitation.

After a few days of rain, the sky cleared and there were some nice snow banners on Mount Shasta. The snow was light but it was enough to make the mountain extra white again. The crags were all encrusted in ice. The temperature was still to high and the moisture not copious enough to really cover the mountain in a deep pack yet. That is still coming…

With more, and more intense, weather coming in, I took my younger kids out to Truchas Ridge one last time before things got really stormy. The wind was incredibly powerful and sustained. If one was not careful, it could easily through you off balance on the rocky terrain. The lake in Echo Basin had not filled back up yet. I suspect that the next round of storms will go a long way to making that happen. The water table plays a roll in the lake’s size and the valley hasn’t gotten much precipitation yet. There are powerful storms approaching though. I suspect the next time I post something, things will look quite different. Merry Christmas!

 

December Has Been Spectacular Thus Far Pt. II (A Magnificent Lenticular)

Posted by bubbasuess on December 12, 2025
Posted in: Mount Shasta. 1 Comment

The first part of December has been one of the most beautiful runs of conditions around Mount Shasta in recent memory. It started off with a November-ending lenticular that was among the best we have had in a while. That inaugurated a week of incredible spectacle around the mountain that included more lenticulars and other beautiful conditions, especially around sunrise and sunset. This was documented in the first post reviewing the beginning of December, 2025. I had to split that up though, because the end of that run of weather was so stupendous, in demanded its own post. Suffice to say, I think this was the best single lenticular display above Mount Shasta in a long time.

Like some of the other lenticulars that formed over the week, this one came out of clear sky. It seemed to crawl out from some alternate dimension around noon, starting off as a single disk then growing into a fine stack. By late afternoon, it was hovering beautifully above Mount Shasta. At the same time, a small secondary cap was careening over the summit, indicative of the great turbulence in the sky around the mountain.

I headed up to the vista near Castle Lake. I had considered the view from the north, but a bank of clouds was partially obscuring the view, making this a less than desirable option. This turned out to be a good option. It yielded a grand view of the mountain, the summit cloud and the large stack to the south, all lit up in spectacular fashion, first by the afternoon light and then by the alpenglow. This was what I have been waiting for…

The massive amount of disruption in the airflow that produces these clouds is mind boggling. The currents and temperature differentials that allow the water vapor to coalesce, flow and then dissipate are incredible. To see it on a scale that is measured in miles rather than feet is even more astounding. The way the light dances on these monumental formations is just a crowning gift. The whole terrific pageant is unforgettable.

Even after the sun had set, the show was not over. The clouds kept churning as the night set in. There was just enough afterglow to get an amazing shot with a little longer exposure. It ended up being an epic punctuation mark on a stellar lenticular event. Thank the Lord for this one!

This particular lenticular was so awesome, I am including two time lapse videos. One is from the south on Girard Ridge, the other from the Shasta Valley. Note how the cloud comes out of nowhere.

Girard Ridge perspective: I could have cut this one shorter, but I liked the sunrise and the effect of the fog dancing in the Sacramento River’s canyon. The way the lenticular just pops up out of the clear sky is incredible.

Shasta Valley perspective: This one starts off great but as the clouds gather in the north it is harder to see the lenticular. Still, it is a fascinating video for a phenomenal cloud formation.

By the next morning, the lenticulars were gone. A beautifully colorful sunrise ushered in a few days of warmer weather and clearer skies. After that, a week plus of rain…and maybe some snow. In the meantime, could something interesting happen around Mount Shasta if the sky is clear?

December Has Been Spectacular Thus Far Pt. I

Posted by bubbasuess on December 11, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, Shasta Valley, Truchas Ridge. 1 Comment

A lenticular cloud emerges over Mount Shasta at sunset.

As November drew to a close, Mount Shasta was graced by one of the finest lenticulars that has formed over the mountain in some time. I have griped a lot the last year or so that the frequency of large lenticular events over the mountain has decreased significantly over the last few years. In the past, it was common for there to be a handful of really epic displays while also boasting quite a few “run of the mill” lenticulars. The last few years this certainly not been the case. Thus it has come as a pleasant surprise that that trend has been broken, at least for a little over a week. The first nine days of December had one of the highest concentrations of beautiful conditions and lenticular formations that I can remember in the recent past. Hopefully this is just a portent of things to come over the winter and spring.

The first lenticular formation came the day after the massive one that closed out November. This one caught be off guard. I was not anticipating it as it had been fairly clear all day but when I was taking my kids to one of their events, I noticed the activity over Mount Shasta and had to stop and get a shot of the mountain. The color at sunset was fantastic and the layers on the stack over the mountain’s summit were very distinct. A secondary cloud tried forming to the south but couldn’t muster the strength to really pull itself together. It still caught the alpenglow in spectacular fashion!

The really interesting thing about this cloud was the way it formed so suddenly. It had been overcast all day and had not given much indication anything interesting was going to happen. In the time lapse, you can see it forming at times, but it was just lost in the rest of the clouds and it was only before sunset that it finally took a really distinct and sustained shape.

A couple of days went by and there were no lenticulars but the colors on Mount Shasta, particularly around the rising and setting of the sun, were intense. I kept getting up early to catch the sunset and there were some spectacular ones but I couldn’t always get pictures since I had to get the kids to school. It felt like something was brewing in the weather and I didn’t want to miss it.

Mount Shasta proved me correct. The next day a little formation clung to the summit. I watched it all day, twisting and undulating with the air currents over the mountain. Just before sunset I headed up toward Castle Lake to catch the sunset. It wasn’t quite as colorful as I had hoped but it was a harbinger of things to come. I was hopeful that cloud would sustain itself through the night and might do something interesting the next day.

By morning the cloud had grown and was covering the entire summit area of Mount Shasta. These are the least interesting formations on the mountain. They lack distinct layers and cover the terrain, leaving just a blob where there should be a mountain. Still, it did glow as the sun came up.

By mid morning the cloud had just about dissipated over Mount Shasta. Only vestigial wisps clung around the summit. It didn’t seem like there was much more going on at this point.

To my surprise, by noon a serious cap had formed over Mount Shasta. This new display was a large stack composed of intricate layers forming an impressive dome. A small, secondary disk kept trying to form above it but it had a hard time sustaining itself and would often disappear before coalescing again for a brief time.

The cloud was still strong in the afternoon so I planned on heading out to Truchas Ridge for the sunset. This time, I decided not to go to Echo Point but to the old favorite of Panorama Point. It has been a while since I have been up there and I got there a little later than I anticipated. The light was starting to fade in Parks Creek’s vale but I was able to capture a shot before it was gone. The cloud on Mount Shasta was much smaller at this point but the one that couldn’t muster its strength all day finally significantly, developing into a blobby form over the summit.

As the sun faded, the sky burst into a brilliant display of purple and pink. Dark clouds were moving in towards Mount Shasta’s summit. The colors were awesome and the drama of the dark clouds made this a fine and memorable sunset. I definitely need to get back up to Panorama Point more often.

The time lapse shows how tenacious the lenticular was, clinging to Mount Shasta all day, even when the clouds seemed it overwhelm it as they sailed by. When they were gone, it was still there. Also, I love how the light breaks through the clouds and travels over the hills of the Shasta Valley.

The next day dawned with another lenticular. The sky was blanketed with clouds. This was the makings for a colorful sunset so, once again, I dragged myself out of bed earlier than I wanted to. To my dismay, the clouds sailed off to the south as I drove north, leaving little in the sky to catch the color. The lenticular remained, though it too was diminished in size from what it had been when I got up. Nonetheless, the flow of the fog through the Shasta Valley made the morning interesting. It all seems so…respiratory. I am not sure what mythic creature’s breathing causes this phenomenon though.

That night, as my wife and I drove home from the animal hospital’s Christmas party, the lenticular still hung over Mount Shasta. It was backlit by the rising moon, which gave it an eerie glow in the dark night. We stopped and took a few shots, hoping to capture some of the glittering in front of us. It was a great end to a the most beautiful week I have seen around Mount Shasta in some time. Little did I know the best was yet to come…

Lenticular Interrupted

Posted by bubbasuess on November 30, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Desert, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, Shasta Valley, sunset. 9 Comments

A couple days after Thanksgiving, we were finally blessed with a spectacular lenticular display over Mount Shasta. Autumn is typically one of the best seasons for these epic formations in the sky but this year, much like the last couple of years, there hasn’t been much lenticular presence, let alone any big spectacular ones. That unfortunate streak has finally come to an end.

The heart of the formation was a massive lenticular stack above the summit of Mount Shasta. It caught the morning light in terrific fashion. It didn’t have much purple but it pulsated with pink and orange light. The intricate layers, each nestled one within the other, the shadows and dark clouds only serving to highlight the shape of the next strata of the cloud. This is the kind of lenticular one waits all season for.

Unfortunately, after capturing images of it at sunrise, I was immediately off to head up Christmas tree sales at the boy scout lot. Fortunately, this is a fun and worthwhile endeavor and even though I was missing the lenticular, I knew I was investing my time well. After three days of sales, we only have 92 trees left. If you want a great red fir (silvertip) Christmas tree that was wild caught on the east side of Mount Shasta, come by our lot next Saturday!

After closing the lot up no long before sunset, I headed home. The Christmas tree sales interruption now over, I would have tried to go immediately to get images of the lenticular blazing with the colors of alpenglow but I was in my truck, towing my large trailer I had been using to restock the tree lot. It wasn’t conducive to chasing images of the mountain and cloud. I did force myself to stop and just capture an image from the road for posterity. The lenticular wasn’t as large as it had been but it still presented a fascinating view.

After dropping my truck off and heading out into the Shasta Valley, I got to a decent vantage point just as the colors really flared up. Pinks and purples filled the sky and the mountain itself glowed in the reflected color of the setting sun. It was a spectacular end to a busy day. I hope we have many more lenticulars in the near future!

This time lapse captures a dramatic perspective on the lifespan of the lenticular over Mount Shasta. The way it is in constant flux, churning and roiling as the day progresses is amazing. I have been waiting a while for one of these. This Thanksgiving I am thankful one finally came (among many other things).

A Stormy Wave And A Truchas Sunset

Posted by bubbasuess on November 27, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta, Shasta Valley, Truchas Ridge. 3 Comments

The edge of a storm surges against the base of Mount Shasta. 

There really isn’t too much to this post, other than to populate it with some images of Mount Shasta that I have been able to capture in the midst of an otherwise very busy month. Once again, the lethal combination of clinic, school and Christmas trees has kept me pretty occupied and limited the amount of time I had to do anything. This wasn’t a unbearable, since much of the month was punctuated with storms. These left Mount Shasta with a solid blanket of snow, which has fully restored it to its winter glory after the summer. It is notable, however, that this is the first winter in quite a few years we haven’t had any snow at all at lower elevations. There has been none at my house. Given how wet the month has been, it is just notable, not concerning. For the last 5 days or so it has been gorgeous weather and that looks like a trend continuing into December.

A couple weeks ago, during a break in the storm, my wife and I headed up into the Shasta Valley to watch the sunset. We opted to not go to Truchas Ridge but stayed nearby. The color on the mountain turned out to be quite nice and we were glad we had made the quick trip out there after all the rain had fallen.

One more storm passed through the area about a week ago and this one yielded a classic look at the way the storms often halt right on the divide separating the Sacramento and Klamath River watersheds. The Shasta Valley was bright and sunny while the dark clouds piled up over the mountains. At my house it was raining but only 15 minutes to the north it was sunny and dry.

The rainshadow was obvious but equally dramatic. Only the base of Black Butte was visible in the midst of the swirling storm. It looked like a giant wave breaking and then dissipating into the desert of the Shasta Valley. Rain was visibly falling in the mountain canyons but it never really forced its way into the valley.

Since that last storm a week ago, the temperatures dropped and the sky cleared. It has been frosty and cold but the sunlight has made the days beautiful. My youngest son and I went tromping along the Sacramento River, where everything was covered with a patina of ice but the river was flowing strong. Mount Shasta was beautifully snowy in the distance.

A few days later, my older son and I climbed up to Panorama Point at Truchas Ridge. We haven’t been up there since March which is strange, considering we used to go there weekly. Hopefully we will return to that kind of frequency but the wheels of justice grind slowly… Nonetheless, it was great to be out there with him and the conditions were beautiful. There had been a lenticular over Mount Shasta earlier, but it had collapsed before we got there. The clouds were still quite interesting though. Being back up there, with its top-of-the world- views in all directions was a good reminder of how spectacular that area really is. Over the last year or two we have favored Echo Point for a variety of reasons but this outing was a good reminder that the length of Truchas Ridge is worth spending time at.

In the end, the color turned out to be beautiful and the time with my son worthwhile. Lenticular or no, it was a great sunset. We plan on heading out there again soon. For now though, it’s Thanksgiving and I have to get to work! Have a blessed day!

 

Aurora Lenticularis

Posted by bubbasuess on November 13, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta. Tagged: . 2 Comments

This was an unexpected treat. There was a major storm system careening toward the Mount Shasta area (the deluge is upon us as I write this) and I was hoping that its arrival might yield some lenticular clouds. I had just been griping about how there had not been many good lenticular displays the last few years, especially in the typically prime seasons of fall and spring. However, my interest in lenticulars was interrupted by a large solar event that meant that the aurora borealis would be pushed far to the south and potentially visible here in Mount Shasta.

For a brief moment I was excited at this prospect, since I had had some good luck with this in the past. Then I remembered the storm and realized that there was likely to be cloud cover and the sky not visible. Thankfully, my dismay was short lived, as the clouds seemed to clear to some degree and some portions of the sky were visible as might also be the aurora.

I headed out to a piece of property my wife and I have and set up for some shots to try to capture the aurora. Unfortunately, I got my settings all out of wake and none of the images turned out the way I had hoped they would. The added calamity was that not only was Mount Shasta visible, but a lenticular formed over the mountain (really, it was far to the northeast, but it appeared to be right above Mount Shasta). The aurora plus a lenticular?!

Sadly, I didn’t get good images of this likely once in a lifetime convergence of conditions. It did make for an awesome animated gif though! Watching the cloud gather and form over Mount Shasta while the aurora colored the sky and the stars ranged across the heavens was a special sequence to witness. The luminous body on the far right was Jupiter (I think).

Needless to say, I finally left the scene but was determines to head out early in the morning if it was not overcast and the lenticulars were still visible. This turned out to be the case, as the sky was filled with unusual cloud formations. Though the light never got really good, it was a grand sight nonetheless. Such awe-inspiring pageantry in the sky was gift upon gift after witnessing the aurora.

This turned out to be the best lenticular display I have seen in quite a while. It was a shame to have botched the aurora but I still got a little something to show for the effort. Just observing such magnificence in the sky would have been enough…

Fog Redux: Getting It Right This Time

Posted by bubbasuess on November 9, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Echo Point, Hiking, Mount Shasta, Shasta Valley, Truchas Ridge. 3 Comments

With all the precipitation we have been getting and the lower temperatures, there has been a lot of morning fog in the Shasta Valley. This can make some great conditions in Echo Basin and Parks Creek’s vale, especially around sunrise. A week ago I headed out to Echo Point in the hopes of getting morning shot with some colorful light bouncing around through the mist. That trip did not work out so well. The fog was so thick, I was often enveloped in the ubiquitous vapor. Despite the presence of some nice lenticulars, I could get the kind of shot I was pursuing. Not one to give up, I headed back out to Echo Point again. This time, conditions were fantastic.

As I climbed up to Echo Point, I could see the wispy clouds turning pink. The fog being fairly thin north of the point, I was pretty confident that conditions would be good in Echo Basin and the fog would be reflecting a lot of the light in the sky. This was indeed the case. The fog seemed to pulse with light while the horizon began to glow as sunrise approached. This was, in same ways, the peak of the scene. Though the color would turn golden, this was the height of the pink and purples. My oldest son, 16, had joined me on this outing and it was gratifying to be able to share this spectacular scene with him.

Though the sun was just below the horizon, the color in the fog quickly slipped away. I have seen this happen before. Though some of the sunrise hues remained in the clouds overhead, the angle was all wrong to light up the valley. Nonetheless, the fog imbued the valley with depth and mystery.

The fog continued to swirl around Echo Basin. Like before, it seemed as through the valley was breathing, with the mist flowing out and then rushing back in. However, thankfully, this time the point was never overtaken and the vista obscured. In fact, the scene remained epic through the entire sunrise.

As predicted, the pink and purple were gone but once the sun breached the horizon, the entire valley burst with golden radiance. The fog seemed to soak it up, thickening into an aurous veil over the broad vale.

High above, on Echo Point, the fog never approached and the surrounding peaks remained clear. It was indeed a beautiful morning at a spectacular, one-of-a-king setting. I was thankful to spend it with my son.

On the way home, we stopped at our property just outside of Mount Shasta City to see how the fall color looked in the morning light. Sadly, though not surprisingly, it has gone. The powerful winds of the previous storm stripped the trees bare. However, even the naked trees, with the few hearty, brown leaves still clinging to them, look beautiful in the morning glow, contrasted against the icy grandeur of Mount Shasta. And more storms approach.

A couple weeks apart, the autumn color has passed us by.

Swallowed By Fog

Posted by bubbasuess on November 7, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Echo Point, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, sunrise, Truchas Ridge. 2 Comments

With autumn in full swing, the conditions around Mount Shasta continue to get more and more interesting. This is the normal pattern of the shoulder seasons as the long dry/wet seasons give way to their respective counterparts. In particular, this was the case a few days ago, when I headed to Echo Point at Truchas Ridge. I have had great luck photographing Mount Shasta from this spot (it’s awesome, how can anyone not have great luck here?) and with the fog  I was hoping to replicate my past success by augmenting the beautiful conditions with a lenticular cloud.

When I first reached Echo Point, the fog was flowing eastward, out of Echo Basin. I was actually worried that maybe I had missed my opportunity with the fog and it was permanently receding for the morning.

My fears were definitely unfounded, as the mist rolled back in, filling the basin and, at times, starting to turn my view of Mount Shasta opaque. I started to wonder if there was going to be too much fog.

The fog continued to sweep through the basin, getting thicker and thicker. Unfortunately, it really began to overtake Echo Point right when the color started to get good. The opportunity I had hoped for had arrived but was just beyond my reach. Nonetheless, it was fascinating to watch the waves of fog lap up against the ridge. It seemed like the aspiration of some terrific being, breathing the fog in and out of the basin beneath me.

Finally, the mist settled just enough for Mount Shasta to be seen clearly above the vaporous sea. The free floating lenticular had dissipated but the one on the mountain’s summit had grown considerably. This corresponding retraction and growth is something I have observed quite a bit with lenticulars. Unfortunately, I did not observe it very long this time. A deep wave flowed toward me and completely swept over Echo Point, ending my view of anything not a few dozen feet from me.

A few moments later, the small disc of the son suddenly burst out of the fog. It was so thick that I could look at the sun with no filter.

The sun’s intensity grew as it climbed higher in the sky and into areas where the fog was thinner. It was soon too bright to look upon but not so powerful enough to scatter the mist. Everything glowed.

The sun finally climbed above the fog and for a brief moment the very top of Mount Shasta was visible above the god. The lenticular on the summit had grown even more but was soon swallowed up once again by the fog. Such was the nature of the morning.

All in all it was a disappointing morning in terms of photography but it was still quite spectacular in its own way. I couldn’t help thinking that it was a waste of an opportunity for a good eclipse!

Heading back home, I left the fog and entered the domain of the incoming storm. The mountain and its lenticular crown were briefly visible before the clouds obscured it, much like what had been done by the fog. The storm turned out to be a strong one. Lots of rain, 70 mph winds, broken branches and a toppled steeple at one of the churches. That pretty much marked the end of the fall color, since most of it is now lying on the ground. Still, fall persists and we might get some more pyrotechnics in the sky.