2-Day Spontaneous Mt Shasta Trip!

Have you ever been to Mt Shasta area? Well, if you haven’t, I highly recommend it! Shasta is incredible and the energy up there is unreal!

This was a super spontaneous trip I took with my sister. We had heard of Burney Falls and McCloud falls and wanted to check it out, but the trip ended up being so much more than that!

Burney Falls

We didn’t book a hotel and just got in the car and drove up. 1st stop was Burney Falls! Such a dreamy waterfall, and so easy to get to! You park your car, and this beauty is only a 5 min walk down from the parking lot. Worth the 4h drive up North from San Francisco for sure!

Castle Lake & Heart Lake

After Burney Falls, we looked some stuff up online to do and headed to Castle Lake to do the hike to Heart Lake. Such a beautiful place. A short hike of a total of 2.6 miles. 1.3 miles up and about 800ft of elevation. We ran out of water in the middle of it, but kept going since it wasn’t long, and it was so worth it!! From up there you see both lakes and Mt. Shasta!! Incredible view!

After the hike we relaxed at Castle Lake and headed to Shasta town to get dinner. It’s a super small town so don’t expect anything fancy or 5-star service, but everyone is super friendly.

We made the mistake of not booking a hotel in advance, so make sure you do that because after dinner we tried and ended up having to stay at a super crappy motel which was only place with the LAST room available in town that day. And it wasn’t super cheap either for what it was. But as adventure seekers, we laughed at the whole situation and just went to sleep.

Road to Pluto’s Cave

On day 2 we got up super early and headed to Pluto’s cave. There are some beautiful sights of Mt. Shasta from the road over there. It’s so pretty everywhere you look, that we had to pull over on the side of the road and take it all in. And to take some pictures too obviously haha.

Pluto’s Cave

Pluto’s Cave was a pretty cool spot to see! This hidden gem is a 30 min drive from Mt Shasta town, and only half a mile hike from the parking lot with a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta. BUT they had a sign saying to watch for rattlesnakes, so that was interesting and a bit concerning, so come prepared and keep your eyes out!

The cave is a mile long, and you can hike the whole way through, but it’s pitch black in there and you need flashlights. We only had the flashlights on our phones, which was fine for a little bit of the hike in, but we turned around, because darkness and rattlesnakes is not a good combo at all hahah! So, if you plan on hiking all the way through, bring a flashlight and wear some boots!

Castle Crags State Park – Crags Trail/Castle Dome

After Pluto’s Cave we headed to Castle Crags State Park to do the Crags Trail to Castle Dome. What a great hike!! It’s 2.8 miles to the top, with 2200ft of elevation, so it was a pretty intense hike in 100 degrees weather. The first half isn’t bad, but on the second half you’re exposed to the sun, hiking up through rocks, and it’s pretty steep. As the park ranger said, it’s like you’re climbing stairs the whole way up in the sun. Soooo if you hate the Stairmaster at the gym, you’re not going to like this hahaha. But as you can see, it was sooooo worth it! Insanely gorgeous views all around and a great booty workout!!

McCloud Falls

Our last stop in Shasta was McCloud Falls. Such a perfect way to end our trip!

At McCloud Falls you can go to Upper, Middle or Lower Falls. We went to Middle Falls and that was only a 24 min super easy hike down from the parking lot. The water was really cold, but it was so refreshing after a long hike and given it was almost 100 degrees that day. Worth the stop!