Welcome to Hike Mt. Shasta, the (soon to be) complete guide for hiking the Mount Shasta region!
Click here to learn more about Mount Shasta’s geography.
Use the interactive map to explore trails in the Mount Shasta area! More trail descriptions are in preparation now!
Green points – Mount Shasta trails
Red points – Trinity Divide trails
Orange points – Scott Mountains trails
Brown points – Shasta Valley trails
Light green points – Cascade Crest trails
Gray points – Castle Crags trails
Burgundy points – Mount Shasta City Area trails
Light blue points – Sacramento River trails
Dark blue points – McCloud River trails
Hike Mt. Shasta 
Hi Bubba, looks great so far. All the best! Cathi
Thanks Cathi!
Hello, My partner is an experienced outdoors man. He is wanting to climb Mt Shasta this New Years or Christmas alone. I am wondering how wise is that? I am not a mountaineer so rather concerned. He say he going to hike the ridge to avoid the avalanche zones but I am hoping you could give me a place i research just how dangerous this is and how I can help ensure he is properly prepared or I am while waiting for him to complete it:)!THANKYOU
I would strongly discourage anyone without significant experience on Mount Shasta from attempting the mountain right now. The winter has been dry thus far so snow on the mountain is minimal which makes all the routes except the Clear Creek route highly unstable. This is not a good time to climb the mountain no matter how experienced or whether or not one is alone. For more information, check out the Mount Shasta page on http://www.summitpost.org and be sure to post in the forums looking for advice. In particular, you want to hear from the user mrchad9. He has significant experience on the mountain. Again, I strongly discourage an attempt on the mountain.
Awesome, awesome website Bubba
Bubba,
You’ve been a busy guy! The website looks great! I’m putting the finishing touches on my guidebook and I’m going to send it to print today! Looking forward to getting together again. Thanks for the hiking info.
An awesome looking site with great info. Hope to make it up that way soon!
Give me a holler if you come down this way!
Wow, great site with a wealth of information. As soon as retirement hits – we are so there!
Thanks much! I hope the site is useful. If you do come to the area, let me know if I can help in any way!
Fantastic site. I hope to be in that country soon!
Thanks much! I hope you have a good time when you come out!
I would love to hike Mt. Shasta! Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your site is beautiful.
Thanks much! I appreciate it.
Great site. I’m going to be up there this summer, and I’m going to explore some of these trails.
If you need help or whatever while you are up here, give me a holler!
This is awesome. Reminds me that its almost 14er season. Nice post!
Spectacular. Must go there sometime.
Been using John Soares book for fifteen years, but found a new hike on your site-the one out of Kangaroo Lake. Like the loop option. We may have to do that trail in early July when we come up for 5 days. Thank you for a great website!
Wow. Thank you for the compliment. I am really glad the site is useful. I hope it continues to be so! You may have seen this, but another great trail that does not appear in any hiking guides is this one:
It is a lot easier to get to from Mount Shasta than Kangaroo Lake! Thanks again.
Great minds think alike! I already printed that one out. We did Parks Lakes a couple of years ago in the Fall-very near the Caldwell Lakes hike. Really enjoyed it-didn’t see another soul!
I am glad the stuff is useful. This may be out of left field, but if you need a place to crash while you are up here, or just to take showers or whatever, we keep a guesthouse across the street for out of town visitors. My wife and I like to be hospitable and help me enjoy the Shasta area, sort of like trail-angels on the PCT.
Hey, Bubba, that’s really kind of you to offer. My husband and I have been going up there since 1998 and we stay at Stewart Springs typically. Love falling asleep to Parks Creek. We will be showing another couple (who are new to the area) our favorite trails, but are also anxious to try new ones. May have to go back in the Fall for the new ones :^) Is the sushi place still in town, btw?
Great job on this! I’ll use it if I visit. And those pictures in the slide show make me want to visit asap!
Thanks for the feedback! I hope that the site is useful and that it gets folks to come explore the area. I just added my first trail for areas a little further away from Mount Shasta too (which are awesome!) so I hope to expand the area’s appeal. Give me a holler if you do come down this way!
I’m curious to see your hikes away from Mt. Shasta too. I have spent many many nights in the Trinity Alps and Russian Wilderness…but never made it as far as Shasta. Now I live in Oregon, so I’m even farther away. I’ll watch your blog and pick a hike to try next time I get down there.
I hope you are able to make it back down this way. We are obviously very proud of our area and think it has a lot to offer. I appreciate the interest in what I have been writing. I hope it proves useful!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this website and all the information you gathered and presented so beautifully 🙂
Believe me, it has been my pleasure! I hope that the site prove useful and helps people enjoy the Mount Shasta area. I really appreciate the feedback !
Hey Bubba. Great job on your site. I’m using it on a regular basis now and everything is as stated.
You’ve done us locals a real favor. I can’t imagine the amount of time you spent on this endeavor.
Thanks so much.
Paul and Kathy Doerr
Paul, I really appreciate your feedback on this. It is a labor of love but I am glad that you find it useful too! I have a couple dozen trail write-ups that I still need to post, so it is far from finished. We should hit the trail together some time!
HI Bubba – too bad I didn’t find your site a month ago! I was up in Shasta for a week at a wedding and stayed for the 4th of July too – you have so much info here this would have been a great resource – next time!
Great idea!
Great blog! Now I’ll have to add Mt. Shasta as a “must do” hike!
Hello my wife and I are headed up to see the Mt. Shasta area for the first time. We live in Oroville and your site is exactly what I wanted to see. Thank you so much for putting all of this info together. Now I can plan for some hikes since we will be in the area for a few days. Again thank you.
Attractive and informative site! I read over a few hikes I am very familiar with, and your descriptions, suggestions, and insights are accurate and clearly presented. Nice use of photos as well. A fantastic resource for our area. On a different topic, the J. Miller quote starts with “Lonely as…” rather than “Lone as…”.
Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it when someone lets me know that the site might be useful. Truly, I am much obliged! As far as the quote, you are, of course, correct and I changed it. Thanks for pointing that out.
I want to Backpack Mt. Shasta sometime early Dec. I love winter camping and was wondering what trails you would recommend or if they even allow it to happen. Thank you.
Also… I want to do it over the course of about 4-5 days. Thanks again.
When you say backpack, what exactly do you have in mind? A summit attempt or snowshoeing on the mountain to set up a snow camp somewhere? There are good options in both cases, but it would be good if you could clarify.
A summit attempt. I will be testing out all the gear that the Marine Corps has given me and ive used for the past decade or so but never in conditions such as these. I just dont know enough about the mountain to plan what trails to take in order to plan the route and figure out daily mileage and such. Also, im still unsure as to what is allowed when it comes to things such as camp fires and the like. Im sorry, i know that most of these questions are probably answered somewhere but sometimes the experts can give a little insight into the smaller nuances of the whole ordeal. Thank you very much for the help.
If this is just the beginning I can’t wait to see how high the bar gets. This is really nice.
Bob Doerr
Just found your site, it’s delicious! Can’t wait to explore it further and I’ll be posting a link from my blog site. I’m always looking for new trails to explore in the northstate, so thanks for your work on this great resource.
What a nicely formatted site with tons of good information. I will have to add this destination to my adventure recipe book. = )
Lots of great images and info here — I’ll be back!
I hope you are able to make it down here at some point!
Great site!
What a fantastic website! And what a fantastic wealth of information you have compiled!
Thank you for visiting my site. Your beautiful photographs, attention to detail, and suburb organization are most inspiring!
Thanks much! I really appreciate that kind of feedback!
Beautiful site. I climbed Shasta in the early 80s with Orvis Agee, a 75 year old man who had been up many times. It was a beautiful experience. Maybe it is time to climb it again. Thanks for all of your work. Curt Mekemson
Beautiful photos. I won’t be hiking Shasta, so very glad to see what it’s like up there.
Beautiful photos!! Definitely adding this to the list of must do’s 🙂
I took a road trip by motorcycle and ended up going through the Mt Shasta area. Beautiful place. Swore I would go back one day.
I really hope you are able to!
I’m glad to have found your site. I’d like to climb Mt. Shasta this summer. Looking forward to exploring some of the trails of the region. Thanks.
This site is incredible! I really appreciate all the work you’ve put into this. I recognize your name from summitpost, it seems like you’ve been to the top of every peak around Northern California. Who are you, and from whence cometh your vast knowledge?
I am sorry I missed your comment here. Thanks for checking the site out. I hope it has proven useful and will continue to do so as summer approaches! What is your handle on Summitpost?
I’ve only lurked at summitpost. You were doing all the heavy lifting there for our area, so I’m glad to see you have your own site now. Thank you again for this strong and valuable work. By far the best resource for researching local hikes.
Oooops my post showed up for a trail we are about to go visit! I just want to say how wonderful this site is! We have lived in Mt. Shasta for about 6 months and use your site to find wonderful new places to visit. It is so fun to take along and read the descriptions as we pass by. We went to Box Canyon the other day and was just as fun as described. Sacramento River trail is definitely an absolute jewel! We enjoyed that hike on a beautiful day and found a wonderful meadow to sit and picnic. These hikes make for EXCELLENT nature walks and learning time for my 6 year old! Thanks!
Thank you so much for leaving this comment. The kind of feedback you have just given is really edifying! I am glad that it has helped you get out on the trail with your son. My wife and I also homeschool (though we are just starting out, since our oldest is not quite five) and our two kids have accompanied us on many of the hikes that appear on this site. For what it is worth, they have even accompanied us up to Squaw Meadow. Come summer, you ought to head up there if you haven’t been there already. I have been keeping my powder dry on blog posts regarding kid friendly trails but when things warm up I am fixin’ to do a couple of posts on the subject. There are a few more trails I have yet to add that would fall into that category too. Thanks again for checking Hike Mt Shasta out and making such great use of the beta on here!
I live north in Washington state and have been monitoring your site ever since it was announced on ours – portlandhikers.org, a year or two ago. Just as our site is a resource for visitors, so yours seems to far outstrip any other resource for far northern California. Our alpine areas don’t melt out to mid-summer (we have an average snowpack in our area this year) and I’m planning a trip down there early season, maybe in May, to the Trinity Alps. Aside from a single night in Castle Crags a few years ago, this will be my first real venture in your area. Your trail descriptions have been the most help in choosing my route (up and over Stonewall Pass and on to Sapphire Lake). Thanks so much.
I really appreciate your feedback on this! You picked a fantastic route in the Trinities and you will certainly not be disappointed. A couple thoughts, if I may add some. You are probably going to do the Four Lakes Loop at some point on the trip but if you weren’t planning to do so, you must! It is awesome. Also, don’t get discouraged on the long climb up Stoney Ridge. The pay off is immense. Lastly, if you are going to Sapphire Lake, be sure to climb up to Mirror Lake. It is smaller than its two siblings, but man is it incredible! If you ever head over closer toward Shasta some time, give me a holler!
So just how bad is the condition of the road to the Stoney Ridge trailhead?
It has been a couple years since I last did that trail, so this is not up to date, but the road in should be in pretty good shape. It is pretty low elevation and just passes through forest for the most part, so it is pretty smooth and ought to be passable in low clearance vehicles. The big caveat I would have is, since we are pretty early in the season, there could be some downed timber or washouts from the winter that have not been cleared yet. I would call the ranger office to check on that. Other than that, I am willing to be you are going to be mostly snow free since the winter was so awful. Snow line right now is at about 9,000 feet on Mount Shasta so that excludes pretty much everything else. The only place you may have some lingering stuff is on the high, north-facing cirques, like the section of trail above Deer Lake.
Always drove right by Mt. Shasta until I saw this site. You spent a lot of time answering my questions and finding the right hikes for our age and skill level (and local restaurants too!). Now we have done several lovely hikes and hope to be back at a later date when we can get higher up the mountain. Thanks again for this site and your willingness to help us find the right hikes!
Any recommendations for a spectacular 5-day backpack in Mt Shasta? Summit or no, doesn’t matter. Thanks!
hi i am going to mount shasta with 2 people next weekend, any advice, we are not expierience hikers. we do not plan on climbing just hike somewher and camp for the night,
Your timing is not great. The weather is fixin’ to get rainy and cold. I don’t think it would be a good time to head out for an overnighter. If you are serious about camping, I would look for a good spot next to the Sacramento River along South Fork Road, preferably downstream from the North Fork. There are some sweet spots with great views of Mount Shasta…not that you will be able to see it with all of the clouds and rain.
Hey Bubba thanks for the quick reply. I really want to go to mt shasta for several reasons. one is to feel the energy of the mountain.we dont mind the cold or rain, and it should not rain or snow till the day we leave mt shasta. how come you think its not a good time to go ?
The weather up on Mount Shasta can be very unpredictable this time of year and there is a chance for rain or snow coming soon. It is best to be prepared for the harsh conditions. Also, the temperature has been getting own into the upper 20’s here in town and even colder than that up on the mountain. Whether it is precipitating or not, be prepared for very cold temperatures. Also, the road to the best trails on Mount Shasta closed on November 1st and the other top trails all require 4×4 vehicles to get to them. That pretty much leaves you with the trail to Horse Camp. It is a good trail, but not the best trail. It does take you into Avalanche Gulch, but water may be an issue up there this time of year. The kind of trip you are contemplating is better done June-September. At this point, you are better off getting a hotel room in town. At the very least, camp down near town where it will be a little warmer and then go hike on the Mountain.
Oh and one question, at this time of the season which trail would be the best for hiking and a overnight camp trip.??
Hi Bubba,
You must stop by some time.
John and Beth
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shastaweddings.com
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Hey everyone i wasn’t sure where to go but i thought this would be a good place to start off, i want to plan a +30 backpacking trip to the trinity alps over my spring break. I have several questions the most important ones being is spring a good season to go? and what is the best trail in your opinion? thanks for all your help!
Thanks for the service – visting from Norway and travelling between Grant’s Pass and Hollister we took a break at Mt Shasta city and hiked Spring Hill Trail and to the waterfall. Added a lot to our visit.
looks like a great resource so far! Keep at it 🙂
The interactive map is great, was it difficult to make??
The maps are surprisingly easy to make! Use googlemaps to do it. If you try to figure it out and need help, feel free to shoot me an email. You shouldn’t have too much trouble though.
Thank you! I’ll try it out this weekend:)
I admired your work on Summit Post and I think that this site is magnificent and so informative. Congratulations. With the low snowfall, what is your prognosis for hiking around Mt. Shasta this spring and summer?
Thanks for checking out my site! Not that many people click over from Summitpost, so appreciate it very much.
With regards to hiking, things should be great. There is not a ton of snow on Mount Shasta so the higher trails ought to be wide open by June. The same holds true for the Trinity Divide. Some of the best places there, like Tamarack Lake, are already accessible, which is kind of frightening. Other than all that, right now is a great place to be hitting the trail, especially in the Castle Crags and along the McCloud River. If there are more specifics I can help you with, feel free to ask!
I’m so glad I found your site– my wife and I are planning a trip to Shasta this summer and this is a great resource!
Hey, I just wanted to know whether hikers climb during night time(2AM-5AM) on Mt. Shasta during March? I was shooting a star timelapse and has found weird lights moving up the mountain. They seem to be hikers but with unusual speed and bright lights.
I am wondering that is it this the time for night hiking or is that something strange!
I’m hoping to plan a summit trip on Shasta in late May/early June. My companions and I are experienced backpackers but have little rock/ice climbing experience. Anybody have any suggested route(s) for us? We can make the trip up to 4 or 5 days. Thanks.
You ought to head over to Summitpost.org and post this question in the forum. This site is geared more for hiking instead of mountaineering. The short answer you will get is Avalanche Gulch or Clear Creek.