SHASTA CASCADE

A mystical mountain towers

City & Town

For travelers, Redding was nothing more than a pit stop along Interstate 5 until the opening of the instantly iconic Sundial Bridge across the Sacramento River in 2004. On the lower flanks of its namesake peak, Mount Shasta City sports a main street lined with New Age bookstores and shops selling crystals said to have mystical powers. No less an authority than James Hilton, author of Lost Horizon, once claimed that the pretty alpine hamlet of Weaverville, gateway to the Trinity Alps, was the closest he’s ever come to a real-life Shangri-la.

The Great Outdoors

Mount Shasta is irresistible to climbers; in the spring, summit-seekers are strung out along its most popular routes like ants on an anthill. To get to the top you need an ice axe, crampons and the skill to use them safely. But on Mount Lassen, its neighbor to the south, a well-graded trail runs all the way to the 10,457-foothigh summit. World-class fly fishing abounds in the Trinity Alps, and those willing to walk a short distance with their rods are almost guaranteed a spot to themselves. On the Salmon River, between the Trinity Alps and Marble Mountains, Otter Bar Lodge (otterbar.com) is one of the West’s premier whitewater kayaking schools.

Heritage & Culture

The Shasta Tribe of Native Americans, a band of hunters and fishermen who lived in cedar-plank houses with basements, once occupied much of what is now farnorthern California and southern Oregon. Their population dropped rapidly as settlers seized land following the discovery of gold in Yreka and Upper Soda Springs in 1850. To the east, at what is now Lava Beds National Monument, the Modoc tribe and the U.S. Army fought the