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First of all, accept my apologies for not updating this overdue blog for a long time. Some of it was due to laziness, some of it was due to work, and some of it was due to planning and preparation for Florida trip. Now I am back and so is some activity on this page.

This entry is in continuation with Lassen Volcanic National Park & Burney Falls. We stayed a night at Burney, CA. Next morning, we drove north to the Mount Shasta. We got some stunning view of Mt. Shasta from the highway. Mt. Shasta is a 14,179 feet tall stratovolcano. It is not connected with any other mountains directly. This makes its views even more stunning! Everett Memorial Highway takes you to the highest accessible point on Mt. Shasta by road. Depending on weather conditions and presence of snow, it varies season to season. The road ends at 9,200 feet. That day, the road was open till approx 7,700 feet. There are frequent lookouts and many campsites as well as off-road trails on the way up. Mt. Shasta is a very famous location for climbing. Permissions are required for climbing above 10,000 feet. Since, we were here just for a day long sightseeing with no plans of hiking, we drove down south from here.

Our next stop was Shasta Lake. It is a reservoir created by Shasta Dam near Redding, CA. Shasta is the third largest lake in California and second largest men-made lake in USA! It is also a very famous spot for water sports and houseboat getaways. Again, since we were running out of time, we drove directly to Lake Shasta Caverns tour departure.

Lake Shasta Caverns were carved by natural formations some 200 millions years ago. These caverns are not accessible by a public road. Tours depart from 1.5 miles east of I-5 on Shasta Cavern Road. Guided tours begin with a boat ride to another end of the lake. From here, a bus will take you uphill to the entrance of the actual caverns. Next 1 hour 30 minutes you will spend inside various cambers of the cavern enjoying various formations like cave draperies, columns, stalagmites, stalactites, flow stones, etc.

Next stop - Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay Exploration Park. Turtle Bay Exploration Park closes around 5pm. We were late for that. However, the bridge is open 24 hours. It provides pedestrian access between north and south parts of the exploration park. This bridge was designed by very famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. As the name suggests, during day time shadow of the tip of the bridge on a large dial at the north end of the bridge tells you the time according to position of the sun. This bridge is fun detour from a visit to Shasta.

Although, this second day of the weekend trip to Shasta and vicinity was quite short, we covered many interesting places. We came across many hikes and water activities we couldn’t do; it was still worth a long drive just for sightseeing and photography!

Some useful links:
 • Lake Shasta Caverns
 • Lake Shasta Activities

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