Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. Mike White
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restaurant, bar, and live-music venue. Yaks (4917 Dunsmuir Ave., 530-678-3517, yaks.com) serves some of the best burgers around. Lodging is available at a handful of motels in town and a couple of nearby resorts. Vacation rentals are also an option.
A town of about 3,500 residents, Mount Shasta sits another 8 miles up I-5 from Dunsmuir. It formerly thrived on logging as its chief economic force but now depends mainly on tourism and recreation. Consequently, travelers will find plenty of gas stations, restaurants, and motels near the freeway exits and along the main road. Situated at the base of Mount Shasta, a volcano in the Cascade Range, the town has a cosmic feel that attracts a large number of spiritually minded souls. Catering to the high number of recreational enthusiasts that the area draws, the town has a couple of outdoor stores where hikers and backpackers can find almost anything they need, including mountaineering gear, at The Fifth Season (300 N. Mount Shasta Blvd.; 530-926-3606, the fifthseason.com), or Shasta Base Camp (308 S. Shasta Blvd.; 503-926-2359, shastabasecamp.com).
Car Camping and Other Recreational Facilities
Campgrounds are plentiful and well placed in this part of Northern California. The Whiskeytown Unit of Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area (NRA) has a couple of fully developed campgrounds and four primitive campgrounds. (Note that the Whiskeytown Unit was affected by the Carr Fire of 2018. Call 530-242-3400 or visit nps.gov/whis for the latest information as the area recovers.)
The best car-camping campgrounds close to the Trinity Alps are found in the Trinity Unit of Whiskeytown NRA around Trinity and Lewiston Lakes. Information sheets listing the campgrounds and their amenities are available at any ranger station, U.S. Forest Service (USFS) information station, or tourist information facility from Redding to Big Bar; you can also find more information at tinyurl.com/trinityunitcamping. At least 15 campgrounds are listed within the recreation area, but not all of them are open at all times. Most of these campgrounds charge a nightly fee.
Of course, you can do more than simply camp in the recreation area. Trinity Lake has picnicking and swimming sites scattered around its shore. A particularly fine swimming area with dressing rooms and picnic tables is immediately north of the Stuart Fork, above the lake where CA 3 crosses Stoney Creek. However, the water level is occasionally too low here to swim during dry years. Boaters can fish and water-ski on Trinity and Lewiston Lakes, and boat rentals are available at marinas.
Shasta-Trinity National Forest campgrounds, outside of the recreation area around the perimeter of the Trinity Alps, are not as developed as the recreation area campgrounds. With the exception of campgrounds on the upper section of CA 3—such as Eagle Creek, Horse Flat, and Scott Summit—these campgrounds typically receive a fair amount of use. For more information, call the forest at 530-226-2500, or visit fs.usda.gov/main/stnf (click “Recreation,” then “Camping & Cabins”).
Between the north side of the Alps and the south side of Russian Wilderness, within Klamath National Forest, several good campgrounds can be accessed from Forest Highway 93/Salmon River Road between Callahan and Cecilville. As most of the land east of Russian Wilderness is private property, no USFS campgrounds are accessible from CA 3 between Callahan and Etna. Sawyers Bar Road provides access to Idlewild Campground, the lone campground on the west side of Russian Wilderness. For more information, contact Klamath National Forest (530-842-6131, fs.usda.gov/klamath).
Castle Crags State Park (530-235-2684, www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=454) offers a number of developed campsites and a half-dozen environmental sites. Only a handful of sites are suitable for RVs, which makes the park a great place for tent campers. On the downside, the park is situated in a steep canyon of the Sacramento River near I-5 and a Southern Pacific Railroad line—the nearly constant drone of traffic and the occasional rumblings of passing trains negate any sense of being away from it all. A general store with a small café and bar immediately outside the park adds to the civilized nature of the area. Along with the excellent hiking, visitors can fish in the nearby river.
Outside of Castle Crags State Park, no-fee primitive campsites circle Castle Lake and flank Castle Creek on the north side of Castle Crags Wilderness. For more information, contact Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Resorts, Bed-and-Breakfasts, and Pack Stations
Ownership, locations, and policies of resorts and outfitters are subject to frequent change—contact the appropriate USFS headquarters for a list of currently permitted concessionaires. I highly recommend that you begin any search for such services with the Shasta-Cascade Wonderland Association (530-365-7500, shastacascade.com). This recreation and tourism agency maintains an information center at 1699 CA 273 in Anderson, about 10 miles south of Redding in the Shasta Factory Outlets Mall.
RESORTS NEAR TRINITY ALPS
Open year-round, Lakeview Terrace Resort in Lewiston (9001 Trinity Dam Road; 530-778-3803, thelakeviewterraceresort.com) overlooks Lewiston Lake and offers cabin rentals for a night, a week, or longer. There is a small RV park at the resort as well. Boating and fishing are the main activities at this resort, but the 10-mile-per-hour speed limit on the lake makes kayaking or canoeing a viable option.
At a shady location along the Stuart Fork, a half mile up Trinity Alps Road from CA 3, Trinity Alps Resort (1750 Trinity Alps Road; 530-286-2205, trinityalpsresort.com) offers weeklong cabin rentals from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The resort is also available for private groups during the shoulder seasons of May and September. Reservations for the 43 cabins and 3 lodge rooms are hard to come by and usually need to be made a year in advance. Amenities include a general store and Bear’s Breath Bar & Grill, which operates on limited days and hours.
Trinity Center, on the west shore of Trinity Lake, has a couple of boat-oriented resorts. Pinewood Cove Resort (45110 CA 3; 530-286-2201, pinewoodcove.com) offers cabins with full baths and kitchens for weeklong rentals between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. Cabins can be rented for a two-night minimum during the off-season at reduced rates between mid-September and mid-May. Trinity Lake Resorts & Marina (45810 CA 3; 800-255-5561, trinitylakeresort.com) has housekeeping cabins with full kitchens and baths for nightly or weekly rental periods, plus houseboats for three- to seven-day rental periods.
Bonanza King Resort (475 Coffee Creek Road; 530-266-3305, bonanzakingresort.com) is a half mile west of CA 3. The resort has seven cabins, with kitchens and full baths, available for rent on a weekly basis during the summer season, which runs from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. The cabins are available on a two-night minimum basis during the rest of the year.
A dude ranch about 5 miles from CA 3, Coffee Creek Ranch (4310 Coffee Creek Road; 800-624-4480, coffeecreekranch.com) has a history dating back to the late 1800s and is run by the Hartman Family. Daily trail rides are a staple of the ranch and overnight trips can be arranged. The ranch is open Easter–Thanksgiving.
Trinity Mountain Meadow Resort (530-462-4677, mountainmeadowresort.com) is on Coffee Creek Road, 18 miles from CA 3. Cabins can be rented for a week at a time during the months of July and August. All meals are provided.
North of Coffee Creek, Ripple Creek Cabins (1450 Eagle Creek Loop; 530-266-3505, ripplecreekcabins.com) is an all-year facility with seven housekeeping