Richard Uzelac’s Mount Shasta, California Experience

We Enjoyed Visiting Mount Shasta!

Recently my Wife and I decided to go to Mount Shasta for a few days. I gotta say, it was a fantastic experience full of natural beauty, fresh air and alkaline water! The little town of Mt Shasta was charming and a great walk around full of Shops and eclectic restaurants. – Richard Uzelac

Lodging Notes

Inn at Mount Shasta:

This was a nicely modernized and updated Motel located just before arriving to the main street of the town of Mt. Shasta. The people there were relaxed and helpful. The outside is rather plain but clean. The room was well above average with a designer feel to it. Nice big bed and furniture looked proper and planned. It overall had a hip clean upscale feel. Pricing was VERY reasonable.

We often walked to the town from the Inn and it was very pleasant. Overall we gave it 3.5 Stars for a nice safe clean place with style, at a great price.

Inn at Shasta Lake:

This was literally a Mom and Pop Inn with lovely grounds, a charming gathering place for the included breakfast and happy hour drinks and snacks every day. This place was three minutes to HWY 5 and five minutes to Shasta Lake and a short boatride to the Shasta Lake Caverns ( a must see).

The place reminded me of Pennsylvania with lush mountain flora and groups of deer in the woods. Much of the breakfast food is grown right on site in their large garden. We walked through there and saw a very nice selection of fruits and vegetables they use for the breakfast.

Food Notes:

Too bad they didn’t offer food because finding a good place to have dinner was not so easy. We decided to go north on the 5 Hwy and ended up eating at a dive bar on Taco Tuesday night. It was a dive but the people were fun and we actually enjoyed the evening. If you want a better plate of food, you MUST go SOUTH on the 5 freeway to Redding, California for Dinner.

Back up in the town of Mt Shasta we had some great meals. One place was the little hippy market just a short walk from our hotel. The breakfast and lunch food was great and the people, mountain people, hippies, Van-lifers, hikers, bikers and other edgy people were quite interesting to watch while enjoying a healthy meal.

We also ate at the only Indian Food restaurant in the town. The owner lives upstairs with his family and serves food in his living/dining rooms. The food was good and a nice walk to and from the hotel.

The Sights:

Loved Mt. Shasta, the monolithic white pyramid sitting on the flat lands around it like a spaceship that landed in a corn field. It feels surprising and unexpected when you first see it. We were used to the long High Sierras that tended to go on forever. But Mt. Shasta is like the pyramids of Egypt: Monoliths surrounded by relatively flat lands around it.

Mt Shasta is beautiful upon first Site. While we fought our way up to the town in a long downpour at night, we were rewarded by a beautiful snowy mountain peak the next morning, just breathtaking. Mt. Shasta reminds me how truly beautiful California is.

Fresh Snow!

We drove our car up as far as we could to the highest car park available which was about 8,000 ft above sea level. And that spot is just the base of Mt. Shasta proper. The mountain top is over 14,000 feet, almost that of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States. We did a short hike to about 9,000 feet and stopped to meditate on boulders after removing some of the fresh perfect snow that sat on top of them like icing.

Peaceful Meditation

We sat in our meditation positions and listened to …nothing. I mean, NOTHING, it was sooo very quiet that I actually heard my own brain slightly humming. My ears heard the inside of my brain, it was amazing.

If you plan to hike Mt. Shasta in the snow, be fully prepared and in great shape, especially with new snow. New snow can hide dangerous drop offs and cliffs.

Overall this was a must see hike and part of my bucket-list.

Old Resort Ruins:
With a bit of work you can find the old resort from the early 1900’s where people went to take in the ‘the waters’ near Shasta. The waters happen to be a very alkaline ground water that to this day bubble up out of the ground and find their way to an old small brass pipe, and just flow right on to the ground. The water has a PH of over 11! As an Alkaline water drinker, this was heaven for me to get natural alkaline spring water. The area has some old stone walls and even an old stone soaking tub for the Resort visitors from 100 years ago. Beside the ruins is an active creek and two sets of waterfalls, one of which was quite big.

Lake Shasta Caverns:
Beautiful rock formations after a short boat ride, bus ride and steep climb.

Lake Shasta Dam:
Great museum and history behind this dam that buried three towns under 400 feet of water!

Hope you go some day! -Richard Uzelac

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•