sunrise

Disks In The Sky, Light In The Dust

Posted by bubbasuess on August 22, 2026
Posted in: Cascade Range, Desert, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, sunrise. Leave a comment

Since mid-July, the summer has had a number of heat waves and not much going on in the sky. I’m not saying we’ve turned the corner into autumn yet but it has felt like the beginning of the beginning of the turn. That has definitely been the case the last couple of days, with a fair amount of activity in the sky over Mount Shasta. I was too busy yesterday to try to document anything but I made sure to get up early this morning to head out and try to capture what I reckoned would be a lenticular. This was not the only thing to make the morning interesting, however. I was startled by just how much dust was getting whipped off the unstable east side of Shastina. This plume ended up catching a lot of light, a pleasant addition to an already pretty morning. The cloud, grew and then – poof – it was gone just before sunset.

Sometimes it is difficult to tell what goes into the creation and fluctuation of a lenticular cloud. This particular formation had a fairly defined shape early in the morning but by the time the sun came up, its form was more nebulous. Did the rising of the sun, the imperceptible increase of heat in the air cause it to lose shape? It was frustratingly less interesting right at the right time for the color to hit the cloud. In spite of this, the entirety of the scene was beautiful, with textured clouds behind the mountain picking up the dawn illumination beautifully.

With the lenticular diminished, what really caught my eye was what looked like a red mist around the Whitney Glacier on Mount Shasta. The winds were coursing through the canyon between the Hotlum Cone and Shastina, throwing up a vast cloud of dust, which was then catching the light of the rising sun. This is not an uncommon phenomenon but I can’t remember ever having seen the dust plume red during sunrrise.

The cloud remained active once the sun was up and though the color had changed, it was still an impressive display. At times the dust cloud drifted far beyond the Whitney Glacier and could be seen all around the lower slopes of the mountain. The sun was still low in the sky, so the dust continued catching the warm morning light, glowingly beautifully.

Looking through the telephoto lens, it is eerie how the wind-whipped dust gives Mount Shasta the appearance that the volcano has awakened and is releasing its fury into the air, warning us of some impending cataclysm. I can almost smell the H2S as it is drifting out of the vents. Thankfully, it is just dust, and no eruption is imminent.

Overall, it was in interesting an beautiful morning. The lenticular was underwhelming but the dust on the mountain was more than expected. It continues to amaze me how Mount Shasta is not done taking its shape. The Whitney Glacier continues to undercut the east side of Shastina, causing this rugged slope to be extremely unstable and, like the walls of Mud Creek Canyon, it is still finding its angle of repose. The unstable rock continues to fall and the dust is often stirred up. It is grand spectacle.

The sky over Mount Shasta was cloudy most of the day but by afternoon it seemed as though the lenticular cloud had sucked all the other clouds into it, clearing the sky and itself growing to epic proportions. However, it was extremely unstable and with an hour and a half yet to go towards sunset, it too had almost completely disappeared. While it lasted, it was epic.

I don’t know if this lenticular activity was indicative of turning the corner towards autumn, but it does feel like the beginning of the beginning. I hope so. Summer has been great but I love fall. I can’t wait.

 

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!

 

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.

Howling At Echo Point (And The Last Sunrise Of 2024)

Posted by bubbasuess on December 31, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Echo Point, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunrise, Truchas Ridge. 1 Comment

The second to last day of 2024 was a beautiful one. The sky was beautifully blue and layers of clouds created visual strata climbing up toward Mount Shasta’s summit. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stop and capture images of the beauty but I did secure time in the afternoon to head to Echo Point at Truchas Ridge to enjoy the sunset with my family. In a second unfortunate circumstance, most of the clouds had dissipated. However, this is not to sound ungrateful as any opportunity to visit Echo Point is time well spent.

Truchas Ridge was exceedingly muddy but the top of the ridges and the south facing exposure is rocky and travel is much easier. We climbed up to Echo Point in time for sunset and even without the clouds from earlier it was a marvelous sight.

Echo Point is so called because it overlooks what we call Echo Basin. The basin holds large meadows and a lake in addition to extensive meadows. More than 300 feet above, the point has a grand vista that includes almost every major peak around the Shasta Valley, as well as Parks Creek and the more hard-to-see Shasta River.

The shape of the basin make its acoustics fantastic. As the name implies, echoes occur very prominently there. It is customary for my daughter, in her youthful fancy, to step out onto the rocky prominence and howl, preferably at sunset. Occasionally, the coyotes answer.

My crummy phone microphone did not pick up the echo, but you get the idea. It’s a fun way for her to end the trip out there. It really ended the whole of 2024, in terms of sunsets. Clouds were forecasted to come in on New Years Eve and obscure any heavenly theatrics over Mount Shasta and this was the case so this was effectively the final sunset of 2024.

Thankfully, there was one final sunrise for the year, as the incoming clouds lit up very briefly before the storm gloom enveloped everything. Though the pool was frozen, it still caught a lot of light and the intricate lines of the ice made for some interesting texture in the image. It was a good morning and a good end to the year. May 2025 be a good one!

An Almost-Solstice Event Over Mount Shasta

Posted by bubbasuess on December 21, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Glaciers, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Eddy, sunrise, Yosemite. 8 Comments

A frozen but glorious sunrise over Mount Shasta.

December has been a bit of a strange duck of a month. I have barely captured any images of the mountain whatsoever. I know this is partly because there has been so much weather (which is good!) that the mountain has not been visible. Furthermore, I know this is partly because I have been exceedingly busy. Even so, I know there have been morning when I was up early and the mountain was visible and yet, there were no clouds or other interesting features to compel to head out and observe it. Consequently, it has been a slow month in terms of documenting the passage of time over the mountain. Prior to the last few days, the only image I had captured was a technicolor sunrise over a frozen reflecting pool in the Shasta Valley. That was it.

I do like to head out on the solstices and I knew that winter’s would be rainy if the forecast held. Fortunately, the approach to the solstice – and the storm that would obscure it – would be more than memorable enough. The incoming storm was heralded by the finest lenticular display Mount Shasta has had in a while.

The day started with nothing noteworthy in the sky. Clouds coalesced over the mountain and by early afternoon, it was evident something interesting was afoot. My son called me from his youth group Christmas party to alert me to the presence of a lenticular forming and catching the afternoon light (holy kinarsy, my kids are old enough to be lenticular spotters now!). I headed out briefly to some land we had closed escrow on the day before and was able get a quick shot of the mountain with its illuminated cloud cap. It was nice but the overcast sky filtered out most of the light and partly obscured the cloud itself while Mount Shasta was drenched in shadow. I was hopeful things would clear up by sunset.

Indeed, the skies cleared considerably before the sun had set. This meant it was now a moral imperative to head out to try to get the sunset. I had initially planned on heading to Echo Point out at Truchas Ridge but when I saw the reflecting pools all glassy and the wind that normally buffets the valley was absent, I opted to stop at the pool. The reflection was nearly perfect and, despite Mount Shasta never getting any color, it made for a fantastic sunset. It felt like all the lost time in December was finally paying off…as if there was some kind of moral connection.

Considering how strong the lenticular had been the night before and how clear the sky was around it, it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to head out early in the morning to see if I could catch some color on the lenticular over Mount Shasta. Once again, I my planned destination was Echo Point. If some low fog occupied the valley and glowed in the predawn color, so much the better! However, as I headed north, I could see fog, but far more than I had hoped. I was confident that it was so deep Echo Point would have been enveloped and visibility of Mount Shasta nonexistent. Since I was about out of time, that meant the same reflecting pool from the night before was my only real option. Though the wind was now active, the pool still offered the opportunity to capture some great color at sunrise. I was not disappointed. It was epic.

Part of me was confident that the morning lightshow would be the end. With weather incoming for the solstice the next day, the odds of a good sunset were lower. During the day the sky got pretty cloudy but in the late afternoon, it cleared up a bit and the lenticular on Mount Shasta had hung on. It had, however, moved over the mountain rather than northeast of it as it had been in the morning. Such are the vicissitudes of a lenticular cloud’s fortunes. As always, it was a moral imperative to get out to capture it. For a third time, I was intent on getting to Echo Point. This time I did not even look at the reflecting pools as I drove by and the fog that had smothered the valley in the morning was long gone. Yet, the clouds were now closing in on Mount Shasta and it was obvious that light and visibility were getting short. I stopped and capture one image before heading up to the point. I am glad I did. Conditions continued to deteriorate but that fleeting moment, with its great cloud and interplay of light and dark, was beautiful!

Finally I made it up to Echo Point! I never get tired of the view from up there. It was very windy, as the valley often is but the howl of the wind was wild and the lonely basin felt abandoned and gloriously desolate. Even though the light has long since left the land was was fading from the sky prematurely it was edifying just being there.

I waited for a last burst of light as the sun sank beyond the horizon but it was for not. Nonetheless, seeing the last glow beyond Cabezon Peak, beyond the distant Little Scott Mountains, it was mesmerizing. It may not have been the solstice proper but it was as close as it was going to get. The last 24 hour had seen some extraordinary lenticular activity. It was a great way to end the short days. Now they can get longer, at long last!

Mount Shasta Is A White Mountain Again

Posted by bubbasuess on November 16, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunrise. 8 Comments

Amazingly, Mount Shasta has been receiving a fair amount of snow since August. However, between the heat of summer and the strong winds of autumn, not much snow has been able to accumulate on the mountain. That has all changed with this past storm. It was sustained, had a lot of precipitation and it was cold. It snowed all the way down to 3,500 feet. My house had a couple of inches of snow, though most of it melted off when the precipitation turned to rain. Needless to say, Mount Shasta got a lot more than that!

Though it was overcast most of Friday, the clouds broke just before sunset and revealed Mount Shasta finally laden with a deep blanket of snow. Given the temperature, and the large storm that is incoming in a few days, this snow will not be blowing away or melting. Instead, it will get buried under further layers of snow, deepening the snowpack and seeing the sun again until summer.

Cloud cover was the forecast for Saturday but the morning was just clear enough to make a good sunrise on Mount Shasta possible. These are just about ideal conditions. I like it when the trees at the higher elevations have snow on them but the rocks and crags of Mount Shasta don’t. The latter condition really allows the geography of Mount Shasta to be highlighted. This was certainly the case Saturday morning, with the crags lightly frosted but generally brilliantly exposed. Snow banners sailed off the high slopes in grand fashion, propelled by strong winds and highlighted by the pink light of the rising sun. Whether snow on the mountain, clouds in the sky or snow thrown of slopes, the air just seemed to glow around Mount Shasta.

Not to be left out and indicative of the onset of true winter conditions, Mount Eddy and Black Butte also had varying, though notable, amounts of snow as well. Interestingly, the snow on Black Butte appeared tilted to the east, as though the storm was more severe on that side or the temperatures were lower. Mount Eddy looked to have settled comfortably into winter’s embrace and glowed in the morning light.

These conditions on all three peaks are fleeting, as the incoming storm looks to potentially drop a few feet of snow and last for the better part of a week. We’ll see what things look like on the other side.

Last Sunset From The Old Ski Bowl (And Some Bonus Sunrises)

Posted by bubbasuess on October 24, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunrise. 3 Comments

I really should say likely the last sunset from the Old Ski Bowl, at least for me, at least for 2024. It is customary for the gates to the Old Ski Bowl at Bunny Flat to be closed on November 1st. If this is the case this year, I probably will not have time to head up there again this season (we are heading to Yosemite on Friday, so the last few days of it being open are not happening for me!). My wife and I took some of our kids up there for a picnic dinner and then we lingered to enjoy the sunset. It did not disappoint…sort of.

The sky was filled with interesting cloud formations and we enjoyed the layers of mountains stretching to the south. The Castle Crags always cast a grand silhouette from this perspective (well, from any perspective, really).

Looking west, Mount Eddy protruded into the sky and the rest of the Eddy Range made a fine horizon as the sun sank down towards the mountains. The clouds filtered out the sun but the bright light was visible moving behind the cloud layer.

Finally the sun sank below the horizon but beams of light burst through the clouds. The light was shaped and channeled by the peaks of the Eddy Range. It highlighted the distance between Mount Shasta and the Trinity Alps, a couple dozen miles to the west. For this particular view west, overlooking the vast Klamath Mountains, this was about as beautiful a sunset I had witnessed from the Old Ski Bowl.

Despite all the gorgeous light and beautiful color to the west, Mount Shasta remained drably unilluminated. I guess the mountain can’t win them all.

I had a sense that the next morning might bring a beautiful sunrise and I was not disappointed. However, I had a bit of a conundrum. There were compelling reasons to witness it from the south, east and north (honestly, the west was a good option too, but I wanted to go somewhere I hadn’t been the last few days). Though I initially went east, I ended up going back and heading north. Too my surprise, however, it began raining and a thick layer of cloud was sailing south toward Mount Shasta. A thick cloud also seemed to have consumed the mountain.

While Mount Shasta never broke free of the clouds that were camping on it, a gap developed in the clouds east of the mountain. As the sun rose, this allowed the light to radiate through, lighting up the clouds themselves, as well as the hills and even the grass of the valley. Everything seemed to be pulsing and radiating pink and orange. I could see the clouds south of Mount Shasta catching the light, showing for the spectacle I would have witnessed had I followed the compass thus.

Finally the sun rose just high enough to blast beams through the cloud gap and blast across the sky. It was a magnificent sight and one I surely would have missed had I gone south. I don’t know if I made the best choice, but at least I had made a good one!

Bonus sunrise 1: the next day, while taking my kids to school, I had to pull over to the side of the road and capture another colorful sunrise. It is hard to believe this kind of beauty can be had while doing something as mundane as transporting kids to school!

Bonus sunrise 2: Though I had not captured any images of the next day, but it also yielded a great sunrise. Then again, for the fourth day in a row, I was once again taking my kids to school and, once again, I had to stop and capture the sunrise with my camera. This time the beautiful sky was augmented by aspens, as the fall color has finally started to set in over the last couple days.

Bonus sunrise 3: Not on the way to school and we’re leaving for Yosemite, but I had to get one more, since the sunrise presented itself!

A beautiful sunset and four five awesome sunrises in a row. I love autumn!

What October Has Been Up To In Mount Shasta

Posted by bubbasuess on October 20, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Lenticular Clouds, Mount Shasta, sunrise, sunset. 1 Comment

It is hard to believe that we have charged this far into October already. The days are shorter but the light is so glorious now. It is no longer the harsh, high angle summer. Now things just seem to glow. However, the days have been perfectly warm and the night temperatures are only just now coming down toward freezing at night. This means we have not seen much in the way of fall color…yet. Despite not having the autumn palette splashed across the landscape and the weather generally stable and warm, there have been a few noteworthy incidents this month.

Early in the month, I went up to Castle Lake for the sunrise, hoping to see some comets, clouds or something. Nothing of the sort was to be found. However, the Big Dipper was located perfectly centered over Mount Shasta. The clarity, even as the horizon was lightening. All the stars were visible, even the Alcor (the Rider above Mizar’s Horse). It was a nice consolation prize after getting up early, heading up to the high country and getting skunked on all I had hoped to see.

A few days later, the forecast called for some disturbed weather. I anticipated this might yield a lenticular, so once again I was up well before dawn. This time, rather than heading to the high country, I went to the Shasta Valley, always a good bet for sunrise and sunset. I knew even when it was dark that I was correct, since a huge disk hung in the sky over Mount Shasta. As dawn approached, the disk began to shrink but it was still a spectacular sunrise, with a colorful sky and interesting patterns in the clouds.

The lenticular persisted all day and was still maintaining its presence over Mount Shasta as the sun went down. The sunset was no where near as colorful as the sunrise but it was still a fascinating view of the mountain, cast in shadow by the cloud but with the tall lenticular still absorbing the fading light.

A few days later, we had some rain and Mount Shasta got a light dusting of fresh snow at the higher elevations. However, most fortunately, as the storm broke just before sunset, the lingering showers and low sunlight produced an fantastic rainbow over Mount Shasta. The precipitation made focusing on the peak difficult but just getting a good rainbow and the mountain in the same frame a happy incident.

As the rainbow faded, the clouds began to swallow up Mount Shasta, just as the alpenglow began to light up the snowy parts of the mountain. Within minutes, it was practically gone, leaving only a cloudy sky as it began to grow dark.

The next morning the sky was clear but there was a vaguely lenticularly-shaped formation over the summit. The snow left from the previous storm was still present. I was taking my kids to school when I stopped I captured this shot of Mount Shasta. I was hopeful this might portend a growing lenticular throughout the day.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. The lenticularish cloud faded in the late morning. However, formless clouds continued to linger throughout the day. By sunset snow was blowing off the summit and mixing with the small clouds that were still sailing past the higher parts of the mountain. Not grand in the way the unusual meteorological formations are but still magnificent in its own, Mount Shasta way.

Lastly, just as we began careening through the second half of October, a surprise lenticular made a brief appearance. There had been nothing noteworthy in the sky at all throughout the day. No clouds were visible anywhere. However in the afternoon, a cloud began blanketing the summit of the mountain. From the west, it did not look like much but the outer corners curled up just enough to make me think a lenticular was visible from the Shasta Valley. Sure enough, this was the case and the layered disks were visible extending to the northeast. Furthermore, quite unexpectedly, a small free-floating formation also arrived from nowhere!

The alpenglow intensified on Mount Shasta, heralding the sun’s final descent and the arrival of the enveloping darkness. I had not anticipated any such formation but Mount Shasta remains predictably unpredictable.

Mount Shasta’s August Of Extremes

Posted by bubbasuess on August 26, 2024
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunrise, sunset, Wildflowers. 12 Comments

What a odd month August has been. It began beautifully, with explosive wildflowers at high elevations on Mount Shasta. Though the early part of the month was still afflicted with smoke, we continued to head up to the Old Ski bowl to enjoy the clear air and the ongoing riots of wildflowers. My wife and I like to take our kids up in the evening and have dinner up at the Old Ski Bowl. Sometimes we prepare it there, other times at home but we always enjoy the meal with our family and then hike around. One of those post-repast jaunts took us down to the upper portion of Panther Meadow. The flowers were in excellent form.

The conditions were fantastic but it seemed like the flowers just a hair shy of peak. It’s always hard to catch it at “peak” because the different flowers open at different times. The flowers at this time were mostly paintbrush, sneezeweed, onion and some lupine. The lupine was much more profuse in drier areas but there was some at the meadow too.

I went back up a few days later and caught the meadow about as peak as I have ever seen it. It was a magnificent kaleidoscope of red, purple and yellow against the lush grass green, all crowned by the magnificent tower of Mount Shasta. The light was thick and glowing, imprinting the entire scene indelibly on my memory.

Of course, I could not limit this trip to Panther Meadow. The Old Ski Bowl demanded attention too. The wildflowers there were still in excellent form. The lupine were particularly thick. It was as thick as I have ever seen it there, even better, perhaps, than the epic tree line spring of August 2017. There was more snow on the mountain and everything was greener but the wildflowers weren’t as thick.

A few very difficult weeks passed by. My family and I suffered some hard loses but we endured the ordeal and on the other side of them we were blessed with an unseasonably cool storm that gave us lots of lightning and rain and, on Mount Shasta, snow! I have seen it snow on Mount Shasta in August only a handful of times, and generally speaking it is just a light dusting. The last time I saw it happen was August, 2022, the year it snowed on Mount Shasta every month of the year.

This time, however, it was not a mere dusting. It was a full-fledged wintery storm. There were several inches of snow deposited on the mountain, going all the way down below the tree line. It was a white mountain once again! However, the day after the storm passed, the mountain was mostly left in the clouds, only peering out a few times. I was able to catch some images of the mountain but would have to wait until the next day for better conditions.

Naturally, I had to head out for the sunrise on the white mountain. Though it had been cold all the previous day, already some of the snow had melted or blown off by the wind. Nonetheless, it was great to see the mountain with the morning glow on the white flanks and dark towers. This was not a normal August sunrise!

The vantage point I went to was one I frequent in the winter and spring but have, to the best of my knowledge, never utilized for a sunset in August. Such was the rare nature of the occasion. Of course, with all the snow, I was not going to leave it at that. I needed to go up to the Old Ski Bowl!

This was as beautiful an August morning as I have witnessed up at the Old Ski Bowl. Not only was there a lovely layer of snow everywhere, but the wildflowers were there. The lupine weren’t as thick as they had been a few weeks earlier but some of the clusters still had profuse blossoms on them. However, the real star now was the rabbit brush.

The yellow flowers of the rabbit brush struck a bright contrast against the white snow. Vast fields of the yellow blossoms seemed so much more obvious against the snow than it normally is. At least it seemed that way.

Seeing the crags of Mount Shasta blanketed in white was also stunning. Though deeper snow is always desirable, I like conditions best when there is plenty of snow on the mountain overall but none on the spires and protruding strata. This permits the crags and strata lines to be bold and make them pop visually. This amount of August snow achieved this.

And yet, to think that this was August, with fresh snow on the mountain with crags highlighted and the showy flowers still thriving seemed so incongruous. It was a terrific morning.

Of course, morning wasn’t enough. My wife and I decided to head up for another dinner at the Old Ski Bowl. It’s not every evening we can enjoy a sunset with wildflowers and snow at the same time!

After dinner we roamed the rocky slopes. My younger kids scampered across the rocks playing some of their favorite mountain games. My wife and I drank in the beauty. I shouldn’t have been surprised but I was still shocked by how much the snow had melted. It still remained thick on the higher flanks of Mount Shasta and provided a glorious contrast to the thick blanket of flowers at the tree line.

The sun slowly set as we enjoyed the spectacle. We were reluctant to leave and call it a night (note my kids running around, easily spotted by my daughter’s white hat!).

Finally, with the sun well below the horizon and the alpenglow fading on Mount Shasta, we bade farewell to the wonder that we beheld. We knew this was one of those rare and unusual sights that so frequently yet uniquely grace Mount Shasta. I have no idea when we might see such a mix of dense wildflowers and fresh snow in August, but this has been a mighty gift to a weary family. For these things and many others, we are filled with gratitude. We drank deeply from the well of beauty and are renewed and ready to tackle the coming school year. Thank you Lord.