RV road trips are some of the best family vacations on the planet. You can take the kids, the dog, the pet hamster, and almost everything except the kitchen sink on your house-on-wheels and set off for fantastic destinations. With an RV, you can set up camp in some of the most remote regions of the earth and then explore the surrounding area with short little day trips. Shasta Lake is one such destination. The lake is set in the vast Shasta-Trinity National Forest and is surrounded by thousands of miles of scenic beauty, which means that a Shasta Lake RV campground is the perfect place from which to explore the area. All of the following natural wonders are about an hour’s drive from Shasta Lake.
Mount Shasta
This towering mountain can be seen from up to 150 miles away on a clear day. It’s usually snowcapped, even in the middle of summer, and in the winter, it’s a prime spot for snow skiing and snowboarding. It’s surprisingly easy to climb, depending which route you take. Day-trippers can also drive up Mount Shasta on Everitt Memorial Highway, a 14-mile scenic drive up the mountain. After 12 miles, you will encounter the Bunny Flat parking area, and if the road is clear, you can keep going for another 2 miles to the Old Ski Bowl parking area. Both vantage points will give you the chance to take in miles and miles of breathtaking beauty.
Burney Falls
When President Teddy Roosevelt saw the Burney Falls, he called it “the eighth wonder of the world”. And no wonder. The northern California has many stunning waterfalls, but this one is considered by many people to be the most beautiful one. It flows at the same rate year-round, pouring around 100 million gallons of water down a 129-foot, moss-covered drop-off every day. It’s fairly easy to access. All you need to do is to follow a one-mile path to the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, where the path ends in an area overlooking the falls.
Castle Crags
This dramatic rock formation is located west of Interstate 5 between the towns of Castella and Dunsmuir and is too noticeable for I-5 motorists to miss. The Castle Crags formation is made up of a collection of majestic granite spires that reach to the sky in an unusual fashion. It’s located on the northwest corner of the Castle Crags State Park. Explorers can take any of several trails, which together cover 28 miles. The famous Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trail from Mexico to Canada, goes through the park, offering a challenging hike to the most adventurous.
These are only three of the many natural wonders surrounding Shasta Lake. Make sure you plan to stay for a while so you can explore as much as you like. It will be an RV trip your family will never forget.
